Incidence of childhood cancer in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 1995-97

Incidence rates of childhood cancer for the city of Ho Chi Minh are presented for the first time. For the 3-year period 1995-97, a total of 302 cancer cases were registered in children under 15 years of age, with a male to female ratio of 1.1. The overall crude rate was 78.8 and the age-standardised incidence rate was 88.4 per million person-years, which was low in comparison with other countries in eastern Asia and with the predominantly white population of Australia. Leukaemia (principally acute lymphocytic), brain tumours and lymphomas were the most common childhood neoplasms, which is consistent with the pattern observed in other registries of the region. The rate of retinoblastoma was higher than in the other regional registries. On the other hand, no cases of hepatocellular carcinoma were registered.