Epidemiología del cáncer en adolescentes de 15 y 16 años

OBJECTIVE to present the frequency of different types of cancer in adolescents with 15 and 16-year-old treated at the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) in Mexico City (MC) hospitals. METHODS it was an observational and prolective study. During January 1 of 1996 to December 31 of 2005, were analyzed new cases of adolescents of 15 and 16-year-old with malignant neoplasms in adolescents at IMSS. The neo-plasms were grouped according with the International Classification of Childhood Cancer; they were stratified by age, sex, and place of residence, and the frequency of these variables were obtained. RESULTS a total of 207 cases were registered. Leukemias were more frequent with 55 cases (26.6%); the second place was for bone tumors with 36 cases (17.4%) and the third place were lymphomas with 32 cases (15.5%). There were not cases of retinoblastoma and renal tumors; only 8 cases of carcinomas (3.9%) were registered. The greatest frequency was observed in males with 116 cases (56.0%), with male/female ratio of 1.3:1. Mexico City and State of Mexico were more frequent places of residence with 70.5% of cases. Near of forty nine percent of cases (48.8%) with solid tumors were diagnosed in III or IV stages. CONCLUSIONS the pattern of cancer was different from older adolescents (15 to 19-year-old), it is necessary to conduct studies of survey in order to determine epidemiology of cancer in the Mexican adolescents.