Cancer Incidence
There were 3,437 infants with newly diagnosed cancer (1,740 cases in males and 1,689 cases in females) from 1975 to 2014. Incidence by 10-year time frame, gender, race, registry, and ICCC-3 groups are shown in Table 1. The overall annual incidence rate of malignant neoplasms in infants was 23.6 cases per 100,000 population. Males and females had similar incidence rates (male 23.3/100,000 and female 23.8/100,000).
Infant cancer incidence rates among whites was about 20 percent higher (p<0.05) than black and other races (American Indian/Alaska Natives, and Asian/Pacific Islanders) .There were no significant differences in cancer incidences between blacks (19.9/100,000) and other racial groups(19.4/100,000). New Mexico had the lowest incidence rate (19.5/100,000). Incidence rates in Seattle, Connecticut, Utah, Detroit and San Francisco were significantly higher than those in New Mexico. Among males, only San Francisco had a significantly higher incidence rate than New Mexico. Among females, Iowa, Seattle, Connecticut, Utah, and Detroit had significantly higher rates than New Mexico. Connecticut was the only registry in which the incidence ratio between genders was significantly different. The incidence rates increased more than 20 percent from 20.5/100,000 in 1975-1984 to 26.5/100,000 in 2005-2014. For males, the incidence rates in 1985-1994, 1995-2004 and 2005-2014 were all significantly higher than 1975-1984. In contrast, for females, only the incidence rate in 2005-2014 was significantly higher than in 1975-1984. The three most frequently diagnosed cancers among infants were neuroblastoma, leukemias and CNS tumors. These three cancers accounted for 21 percent, 18 percent, and 8 percent, respectively, of all cancers diagnosed among infants. There were large variations in incidence rates between different ICCC-3 groups ranging from 0.05/100,000 (lymphomas) to 6.3/100,000 (neuroblastoma). The incidence ratio between male and female among different ICCC-3 groups ranged from 0.82 (retinoblastoma) to 1.17 (hepatic tumors), but no significant differences in the incidence of infant cancers by sex were observed.