The Northern region Children's malignant disease registry 1968-82: incidence and survival.

All cases of childhood cancer diagnosed before the 15th birthday in the years 1968-1982 and resident in the Northern Health Authority region have been registered. There were 1171 registrations and only two have been completely lost to follow up. The overall annual incidence of cancer was 107.1 per million children, similar to previously reported figures. There was no significant change in the rate over the 15 year period either for all cancers or individual cancer types. Eighty six percent of registrations had central review of pathological material. There has been a significant move towards centralisation of care over the 15 years and a significant improvement in survival over the three quinquennia for all cases and for most individual types. High white blood cell count at presentation was confirmed as a bad prognostic feature in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Children treated for ALL in a peripheral hospital had a significantly worse survival than those referred to a specialist centre. Survival rates were calculated for all of the major types of malignancy. The registry includes four sibling pairs with cancer and one family with three siblings affected. Ten children developed secondary primary tumours.