Incidence of childhood cancer in La Plata, Argentina, 1977-1987.

Incidence data on malignant tumors in children aged 0-14 for the period 1977-87 were calculated in La Plata, Argentina. The number of children living in La Plata was 151,085. The overall incidence of malignant tumors was 106.5 per million (127.4 for males and 83.4 for females). Leukemia (30.5%), lymphoma (15.2%) and central nervous system (14.1%) comprised 60% of all tumors. The relative frequency of histologic types was similar to the pattern recognized in other countries of Latin America and different from that reported in North America and Europe where brain tumors rank second. A high incidence of orchioblastoma (infantile embryonal carcinoma) present in this survey can only be substantiated after a longer period of study.