More Children Getting Cancer in UK

LONDON (Reuters Health) - The number of children developing cancer in Britain has increased by more than one third over the past half-century, prompting concerns that an unknown environmental factor could be to blame, researchers said on Tuesday.

The Cancer Research Campaign said analysis of 4,306 cases of childhood cancer diagnosed in the Northwest of England showed that rates of the most common childhood tumours have been gradually increasing over the past 45 years, with an average annual increase of 1% to 3%.

``The current rate of brain cancer is 36 per cent higher than it was in the 1950s, while the rate of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia has also gone up by more than a third,'' the charity said in a release, noting there were also increases in some lesser-known cancers.

It said the results have prompted concerns that an environmental factor, such as chemical pollution, radioactivity, diet--or, in the case of leukaemia, an infectious agent--could be pushing cancer rates up.

``We think that leukaemia in children may be the rare outcome of a common infection and that perhaps some aspect of modern-day living is increasing the chance that the infection will lead to leukaemia.''

However, the increase in the incidence of brain cancer was ''more of a mystery.''

Professor Jillian Birch, who led the research in the department of paediatric oncology at Manchester University, said: ``Because childhood cancers are rare, we need to study trends over a very long period of time in order to detect changes in incidence.

``But now that we know the rate of children's cancer is creeping upwards, it's essential to find out why, so we can come up with ways of countering the problem.''

Nearly 1,500 children now develop cancer each year in the UK.

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