Spatiotemporal analysis of childhood cancers in Iran (2005–2013).

Childhood cancers are among the leading causes of child mortality worldwide. We aimed to analyze the spatiotemporal incidence patterns of five common cancer types in Iran. A total of 17155 incident malignant 0-14 years old cases during 2005-2013 recorded by the Iran National Cancer Registry were included. An adaptive spatiotemporal smoothing model was applied to explore spatiotemporal variations of the age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR). The highest overall ASIR was estimated at 137.9 per million person-years in 2011-2013. Most of the five common cancers had an increasing trend in most provinces for both males and females during this time. Increasing ASIR and risk of cancers were observed during the study period, which follows the trend of childhood cancers incidence worldwide. The health system should take this rise as a serious alarm and provide appropriate prevention plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]