Pattern of childhood malignancy in Sri Lanka with special reference to some risk factors of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Abstract

The study was undertaken to determine the pattern of childhood malignancy in Sri Lanka and some selected risk factors of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia(ALL) in children under 15 years of age. Result from the descriptive study showed an increase in the incidence rate of malignancy in children under 15 years from 2.6 to 6.2 cases per100,000 from 1982 to 1994 with a mean incidence rate of 4.7 per 100,000 children per year. Leukaemia was the commonest childhood malignancy in Sri Lanka (42 per cent) of which 82.7 per cent were cases of ALL, followed by lymphomas (12.6 per cent) and central nervous system tumours(9.7 per cent).The highest rate of increase was seen among brain tumours. Occupational exposure of mothers to chemicals during pregnancy, maternal exposure to xrays during index pregnancy, lower birth orders and post natal x-ray exposure of the child were not significantly associates with the risk of development of ALL-risk of ALL did not increase with advanced maternal or paternal age, a history of foetal loss prior to index pregnancy or family history of malignancy. High social class was not identified as being a risk factor for ALL. No interaction effects of risk factors were noted