Survey of Childhood Malignancies

Abstract

IN ITS original form the survey of childhood malignancies conducted by Oxford Uni¬ versity included children under 10 years of age who died of cancers or leukemia during the years 1953-55, but it has recently been decided to extend the survey to include deaths since 1955 (table 1).In the final study population there will be children born in 18 consecutive years, 1943-60, whose deaths were spread over 8 calendar years .Data collected during the second part of the survey (1956-60 deaths) will differ in several respects from the data on 1953-55 deaths, but the general plan remains the same, and both investigations fail into the broad category of retrospective surveys.All varieties of malignant disease are included and approximately half the deaths are due either to leukemias or to lymphosarcomas.Most of the children will be under 10 years of age at death, but some older deaths may eventually be included in the new population.The survey of 1953-55 deaths began in Oc¬ tober 1956 and was the work of 2 General Reg¬ ister Offices (notifying centers), over 200 local health authority departments (collecting cen¬ ters), and 1 university department (coordinat¬ ing center).The same team will be responsible for the survey of 1956-60 deaths, which began The authors are with the department of social medi¬ cine, Oxford University, Oxford, England.Dr. Stewart is reader in social medicine and Dr. Barber is the holder of the Henry Goodger scholarship for research into blood diseases.The fieldwork in the study was carried out by county and county bor- ough health departments.The study was