Paediatric Radiotherapy

Abstract

Malignant disease in childhood is extremely rare, and particularly so when the mass of malignant disease at all ages is considered. However, its rarity does not diminish its importance both to paediatrics and oncology. In the Manchester Children’s Registry (1976) there are on average 105 cases each year for a population of 1 million children between 0 and 15 years of age. The incidence figures in Table 16.1 are important in planning for the management of tumours in children for two main reasons: 1) the small numbers of tumours in the different tumour sites mean that substantial experience of these patients and their management is impossible except in specialised centres, and 2) the types of tumours are significantly different from those which occur in adults—only 4% are epithelial in origin, whereas in adults these are the common tumours. Even in those groups of tumours which do extend into the adult age-range, such as Ewing’s tumour and osteosarcoma, they occur mainly in young adults. Central nervous system tumours in children differ both in site and histology from those occurring in adults.