Cancers in children increase in decade

New Zealand children are being struck down by cancer at steadily increasing rates, figures from the Ministry of Health show.

The figures, released to Green Party MP Sue Kedgley, show cancer rates climbed 50 per cent between 1990 and 1997.

One hundred and fifty-three cancer cases were recorded in children under 14 years in 1997, up from 104 in 1990. The increase comes as birth rates in New Zealand fall. There were 56,532 births in the year to March 2001, 6 per cent below the 60,331 recorded a decade earlier.

Health experts have called for action on the rise. Since 1995 it has been mandatory to report new cancer cases but the ministry believes about 97 per cent of cases were recorded in the early 1990s.

"We need to look as a society at why children, even at very young ages, get cancer, which normally develops over many years," said Ms Kedgley.

Between 30 and 45 children a year died from cancer in the 1990s.

Cancer epidemiologist John Dockerty, of Otago University, said the latest statistics for all cancers needed closer examination.

But earlier studies had shown significant increases in childhood leukaemia between the mid-1960s and 1990, he said.

"I don't think we should dismiss this sort of thing. We need to look at it carefully and see what it is telling us."

"We don't know whether it is related to demographic changes in the population or whether there is some kind of environmental risk factor that has been increasing."

Ms Kedgley said a closer look at environmental risks was needed, including the possibility that mercury in dental fillings and chemicals in pesticides could penetrate a mother's womb.

"I want to know what the ministry is doing to try to understand why there has been a 50 per cent increase in children being diagnosed with cancer, and to study the increase in the number of children dying."

Child Cancer Foundation chief executive Kay Morris said that New Zealand needed a dedicated national child cancer registry - expected to be set up soon.

The Health Funding Authority formed a national child cancer steering committee last year, which had made the registry a top priority.

Mr Dockerty said research into the causes of cancer in New Zealand was restricted by the small population and it was more valuable when looked at with overseas research.

So far, studies have pointed to the benefits of breastfeeding in lowering the risk, and found that the risk is higher for the children of single mothers and children in poorer families.

- NZPA