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Poverty and childhood cancer incidence in the United States

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Abstract

This study examined socioeconomic differentials in cancer incidence rates during 2000–2005 among children aged 0–19 in the United States. The data on childhood cancers, which were classified by the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, Third Edition (ICCC-3), were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program. The socioeconomic status of residential area at diagnosis was estimated by county-level poverty rate in Census 2000, i.e., percentage of persons in the county living below the national poverty thresholds. Counties were categorized as low-, medium-, and high-poverty areas when the poverty rates were <10, 10–19.99, and 20% or higher, respectively. The results showed that medium- and high-poverty counties had lower age-adjusted incidence rates than low-poverty counties for total childhood cancers combined, central nervous system neoplasms (ICCC group III), neuroblastoma (group IV), renal tumors (group VI), and other malignant epithelial neoplasms and malignant melanomas (group XI). When the data were stratified by race, these associations were observed among whites, but not blacks. For leukemia (group I), poor counties had higher incidence rates than affluent counties for whites, but lower rates for blacks. This ecologic study provides perspective on area socioeconomic variations in childhood cancer incidence that warrants further research.

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Abbreviations

CI:

Confidence interval

ICCC-3:

International classification of childhood cancer, third edition

NCI:

National Cancer Institute

RR:

Rate ratio

SEER:

Surveillance, epidemiology, and end results

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the United States Military Cancer Institute via the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences under the auspices of the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. The content of this paper represents the authors’ personal opinions, which should not be construed as the official views of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the US Department of Defense, or the US Government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Rd, A1039F, Bethesda, MD, 20814, USA

    I-Jen Pan & Kangmin Zhu

  2. Walter Reed Army Medical Center, United States Military Cancer Institute, Washington, DC, 20307, USA

    I-Jen Pan & Kangmin Zhu

  3. Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Julie L. Daniels

  4. Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Julie L. Daniels

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  1. I-Jen Pan
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  2. Julie L. Daniels
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  3. Kangmin Zhu
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Correspondence to I-Jen Pan.

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Pan, IJ., Daniels, J.L. & Zhu, K. Poverty and childhood cancer incidence in the United States. Cancer Causes Control 21, 1139–1145 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9528-3

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