Epidemiological Trends for Childhood and Adolescent Cancers in the Period 1994-2016 in the Czech Republic.

BACKGROUND: Our study aimed to evaluate incidence and mortality trends for childhood and adolescent cancers in the period 1994-2016 in the Czech Republic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data on childhood cancers, which are recorded in the Czech National Cancer Registry, were validated using a clinical database of childhood cancer patients and combined with data from the National Register of Hospitalised Patients and with data from death certificates. These validated data were used to establish cancer incidence. Data from death certificates were used to evaluate long-term trends in mortality. Incidence and mortality trends were assessed by the average annual percentage change. RESULTS: The age-standardised incidence trend for childhood cancers (i.e. those diagnosed in patients aged 0-19 years) showed a statistically significant slight long-term increase in the number of new cases, +0.5% annually on average (p < 0.01), more specifically an increase of +0.6% in girls and a statistically insignificant decrease of 0.1% in boys. In children aged 0-14 years, other malignant epithelial neoplasms and malignant melanomas showed the largest statistically significant average annual increase in incidence (+4.9%; p < 0.01), followed by central nervous system neoplasms (+1.3%; p < 0.05). Lymphomas, by contrast, showed a statistically significant average annual decrease in incidence in children aged 0-14 years (2.1%; p < 0.01). In adolescents aged 15-19 years, other malignant epithelial neoplasms and malignant melanomas also showed a statistically significant average annual increase in incidence (+5.2%; p < 0.01), followed by central nervous system neoplasms (+1.5%; p < 0.05). Mortality trends showed a statistically significant long-term decrease: on average, 5.1% annually in children aged 0-14 years (p < 0.01), and 3.7% annually in adolescents aged 15-19 years (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Available data make it possible to analyse long-term trends in childhood cancer incidence and mortality.

Epidemiology of Plasma Cell Leukemia in the Czech Republic.

BACKGROUND: Plasma cell leukemia (PCL) is a rare but most aggressive form of monoclonal gammopathies. PCL is characterized by the presence of clonal plasma cells in peripheral blood. There are two forms of PCL - primary which presents de novo in patients with no evidence of previous multiple myeloma and secondary which is a leukemic transformation of relapsed or refractory dis-ease in patients with previously recognized multiple myeloma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is the first study to provide information on PCL epidemiology in the Czech population us-ing The Czech National Cancer Registry (CNCR) as the basic source of data for the population-based evaluation of PCL epidemiology. RESULTS: Accord-ing to CNCR data, there were on average six newly dia-gnosed cases of PCL and four deaths caused by PCL each year in the Czech Republic in the period 2000- 2015. PCL incidence in the Czech Republic was reported at 0.57 per million in 2000- 2015. We suppose that most reported cases of PCL are primary PCL because secondary PCL is a relapse of a previously reported myeloma and, in most cases, is not coded as an independent dia-gnosis in the CNCR. CONCLUSION: Data from registries such as the CNCR can provide useful information on epidemiology of various dis-eases. These data, however, have several limitations, such as dia-gnostic criteria and proper cod-ing of not only the dis-ease itself, but also its various forms. These limitations have to be taken into account dur-ing the process of results interpretation. Key words plasma cell leukemia -  epidemiology -  Czech National Cancer Registry (CNCR) -  Czech Republic.

Trends in incidence of childhood cancers in the Czech Republic: population- based analysis of national registries (1994-2014).

The purpose of this study is to summarize incidence and trends in the pediatric cancer burden in the Czech Republic over the period 1994-2014. The recently established Childhood Cancer Registry was combined with retrospective data from the Czech National Cancer Registry to analyze the annual patterns of incidence and long-term trends of pediatric cancer patients aged 0-14 years diagnosed between 1994 and 2014. Malignancies were classified according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancer. The distribution of incidence was stratified according to gender, age at diagnosis, type of cancer and geographic area. Annual age-standardized rates were adjusted using the world standard population. Changes over time were quantified as the average annual percentage change. This analysis comprised records of 5,605 children diagnosed with cancer within the period 1994-2014, annually 267 records on average; the overall age-standardized average annual incidence rate was 169 cases per million. Boys were affected more frequently than girls: the M/F crude incidence ratio was 1.2:1. The highest incidence rates were observed for ICCC groups I (27.8%), III (21.8%), II (12.4%) and IV (7.8%); other groups formed 30.2%. There are significant differences in the geographic distribution of incidence between regions. A borderline statistically significant increase (0.6%) in the overall average annual percentage change was detected between 1994 and 2014 (95% CI: 0.01 to 1.12; p = 0.05). This study provides reliable recent information on trends in the incidence of childhood cancers in the Czech Republic.