Childhood cancer incidence in Bahrain, 1998-2014

Abstract EN

Objective : The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiology of cancer among the Bahraini children in the years 1998-2014 and examine its health policy implications.

Methods : All cancer cases in the Bahrain Cancer Registry from 1st January 1998 to 31st December 2014 were included.

Results: Between January 1998 and December 2014, there were 358 newly diagnosed cases of cancer among the Bahraini children in the Kingdom of Bahrain with an annual average of 21 cases, 216 (60.3%) were boys and 142 (39.7%) were girls.

The average annual truncated world ASRs were 14.6 and 9.9 per 100.000 Bahraini boys and girls, respectively.

During the 14-year period, the world ASRs for the Bahraini children appear to have increased in both sexes.

The average annual age-specific incidence rates indicated a tendency to decline from childhood to pre-adolescence in both sexes.

Conclusions : Childhood cancer is a public health burden which warrants the attention of health policymakers.

In Bahrain, leukemia was the most commonly diagnosed cancer in children, accounting for more than a third of all cases (35.7%), the second was cancer of the brain and CNS (15.9%), and Hodgkin’s disease was the third, accounting for 9% of all cases.

Data on childhood cancer risk factors, should be further considered in childhood cancer epidemiology research in Bahrain.

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