Cancer in children and adolescents in Europe: Developments over 20 years and future challengers

This special issue contains 18 articles describing population-based analyses of incidence and survival for cancer among children and adolescents in Europe over the period 1978-1997. The analyses were derived from the large database of the ACCIS project (Automated Childhood Cancer Information System), which was built through collaboration of 62 population-based cancer registries in 19 European countries. Data on 88,465 cancers in children and 15,369 in adolescents (age 15-19 yrs) were included in the various analyses, making this the largest database on cancer in these age-groups in the world. National data were grouped into five European regions to allow comparisons of incidence and surviva…