Cancer in Children From Birth to Fourteen Years of Age

Although it has been known and statistically recorded for many years that neoplasms in childhood result in a high mortality, only comparatively recently have cancer and related diseases received attention as an important child health problem. In the last decade cancer, leukemia and other tumors have exceeded almost all common diseases among the causes of death in certain age groups during childhood. This high mortality ratio is probably mainly due to the decline in deaths from other diseases. The increasing recognition and more accurate diagnosis of the neoplasms of childhood have likewise raised the statistical incidence. Among the causes of childhood mortality in 1942 in the United States cancer and allied diseases stood tenth in the 2 year age group; third, from 3 to 10 years of age and sixth, from 10 to 14 years of age. In New York in the three year period 1942 to 1944 the deaths