Incidence of childhood cancer of the head and neck in Germany.

Background: Only very limited data are available in the literature on the incidence of childhood cancer of the head and neck worldwide. Methods: Based on data obtained from the national German Childhood Cancer Registry, a total of 370 malignancies of the head and neck in children under the age of 15 (199 boys and 171 girls), which were reported to this institution between 1994 and 2003, were analysed in this study. Results: The overall incidence of malignancies of specific sites of the head and neck in Germany is 4.48 per 100000 children. The most frequently observed entities, representing primary tumours, are soft tissue sarcomas (0.39/100000), lymphomas (0.09/100000) and thyroid carcinoma…