Incidence of childhood tumors in Slovakia.

During the decade 1968-1977 a total of 1488 cases of neoplasms were registered in Slovakia in children aged 0-14 years giving an average annual age-specific rate of 120.7 per million. Tumors prevailed in boys with 131.2 in comparison with girls showing 109.7 incidence rate/10(6). The most common malignancies were leukemias (28.2%), tumors of nervous system (23.9%), lymphomas (14.9%) and Wilm's tumors of kidney (6.7%). The proportion of remaining histologic types was lower. The necessity of the use of standard international classification based on morphology for mutual international comparison of childhood tumors incidence rates as well as for other epidemiological investigations is emphasised.