%0 Journal Article
%T The epidemiology of bone cancer in 0 - 39 year olds in northern England, 1981 - 2002
%A Rachel Eyre
%A Richard G Feltbower
%A Peter W James
%A Karen Blakey
%A Emmanuel Mubwandarikwa
%A David Forman
%A Patricia A McKinney
%A Mark S Pearce
%A Richard JQ McNally
%J BMC Cancer
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2407-10-357
%X Cases aged 0 - 39 years (236 osteosarcomas, 166 Ewing sarcomas and 73 chondrosarcomas) were analysed using Poisson and Cox regressions.Incidence rates (per million persons per year) for osteosarcoma were 2.5 at age 0 - 14 years; 4.5 at age 15 - 29 years and 1.0 at age 30 - 39 years. Similarly, for Ewing sarcoma the incidence rates were 2.2; 2.9; 0.4 and for chondrosarcoma rates were 0.1; 1.2; 1.8 respectively. Incidence of osteosarcoma increased at an average annual rate of 2.5% (95% CI 0.4 - 4.7; P = 0.02), but there was no change in incidence of Ewing sarcoma or chondrosarcoma. There was a marginally statistically significant improvement in survival for Ewing sarcoma (hazard ratio (HR) per annum = 0.97; 95% CI 0.94 - 1.00; P = 0.06), although patients aged 15 - 39 years (n = 93) had worse overall survival than those aged 0 - 14 (n = 73; HR = 1.46; 95% CI 0.98 - 2.17; P = 0.06). There was no significant improvement in osteosarcoma survival (HR per annum = 0.98; 95% CI 0.95 - 1.01; P = 0.18).Reasons for poorer survival in Ewing sarcoma patients aged 15 - 39 years and failure to significantly improve survival for osteosarcoma patients requires further investigation.Malignant bone tumours comprise 0.7% of all cancer diagnoses in the UK [1]. For all ages they have an age-standardised rate of 8 per 1,000,000 persons per year in males and 6 per 1,000,000 persons per year in females (standardised to the world population [2]). These tumours are the third most frequently occurring malignancy diagnosed in those aged 10 - 24 years and comprise more than twenty diagnostic sub-groups. Osteosarcoma is the most common sub-group, accounting for around a third of all diagnoses [3,4].Primary bone cancer is rarely diagnosed in children before the age of five or adults over the age of sixty [3]. Incidence of osteosarcoma increases with age until a peak in late childhood or adolescence around the time of puberty, after which incidence declines. A second less pronounced peak occurs in o
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