Patterns and temporal trends in the incidence of malignant disease in children: I. Leukaemia and lymphoma.

Patterns and trends in incidence of leukaemia and lymphoma in children aged under 15 years and resident in the North Western Regional Health Authority area of England at diagnosis, over the 35-year time period 1954-1988, were analysed. The study included 1407 cases registered with the Manchester Children's Tumour Registry, 100% of which had a histologically or cytologically verified diagnosis. Log-linear modelling identified significant linear increases in acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL) (average quinquennial increase 4%) and Hodgkin's disease (HD) (10%), but not in acute non-lymphocytic leukaemia nor non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Additionally, the chi 2 test for trend identified a significant increase in the incidence of chronic myeloid leukaemia. The possibility that the increases seen in ALL and HD are linked to increases in prevalence of unknown infectious agents is discussed.