Hospital-Based Cancer Registries in Brazil: Distribution and Completeness of Information on Childhood Cancer, from 2000 to 2022Introduction: Cancer is a set of diseases with aggressive characteristics that can spread throughout the body's organs. It is considered one of the main public health issues, being identified as the predominant cause of death in most of the population.
Objective: To characterize childhood cancer and verify the completeness of information in the hospital-based cancer registries (HBCRs) database in Brazil and its geographic regions, from 2000 to 2022.
Method: Observational, retrospective study of secondary basis, with a quantitative approach. The sample comprised 91,233 cases registered in different cancer registries, contained in the Integrating Module of hospital-based cancer registries of the National Cancer Institute, with information on children and adolescents aged 0 to 19 years.
Results: Childhood cancer was more prevalent in males (54.2%; n=49,448), in children between 0 and 4 years old (31.5%; n=28,686), and residents in the Southeast region (44.7%; n=40,801). The hematopoietic and reticuloendothelial system was most affected (29.5%; n=26,859) and chemotherapy was the most administered therapy (44.8%; n=40,916). In 78.8% (n=71,891) of cases, specialized services have met the legal deadline for starting cancer treatment. Most of the variables were classified as excellently completed, however, 20% were considered poorly completed, with the Southeast region being the one with the greatest incompleteness of information.
Conclusion: Neoplasms of the hematopoietic and reticuloendothelial systems were the most frequent, affecting mainly younger children and males, showing excellent completion for most of the variables analyzed.
Key words:
Child; Adolescent; Neoplasms/epidemiology; Records/statistics & numerical data