Cancer Incidence and Survival Trends among Infants in the United States
from 1975 to 2014
Abstract
Background: Cancer among infants (<1 year old) has unique
epidemiologic, clinical and genetic characteristics compared with cancer
in older children. Nonetheless, data on secular trends in infant cancer
incidence and survival in the US is sparse. Methods: Population-based
data from Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER 9) was used to
estimate the incidence, average annual percentage change (APC) for
trends and survival of malignant neoplasm among infants from 1975-2014.
Data were stratified by gender, race, registry and cancer type. Results:
There were 3,437 new infant cancer cases with an overall incidence of
23.6/100,000. Neuroblastoma was the most common infant malignancy
(6.5/100,000), followed by leukemia (3.8/100,000), and brain and central
nervous system tumors (3.3/100,000). The incidence rate increased
significantly over the observational period (APC 0.68; 95%CI 0.30-1.06;
p<0.05). Variations in overall incidence rates were uneven
across SEER registry geographic areas, with the lowest rates among both
males and females in New Mexico. Relative to other racial distribution,
rates were highest among whites. The relative survival rates improved
over time for all tumors except for renal, sarcomas and germ cell and
were not significantly different by gender or race. Conclusions: Cancer
incidence among infants increased over time largely driven by leukemia,
germ cell and sarcoma mainly among male infants. The overall survival
for infant cancer has improved over the years especially since 1990 for
hepatic tumors, lymphoma and leukemia. Further research is needed to
explore the potential impacts of genetic, environmental, and perinatal
factors for possible explanations for these increased cancer incidence
trends.