Background: To study the incidence and survival of leukemias according to the different histologic types in Tarragona, Spain.
Material and method: Analysis of the information obtained from the Cancer Registry of Tarragona (Spain) between 1980-1994. The leukemias were classified in: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL) and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The estimated incidence rates have been adjusted to the worldwide population, the percentage of the incidence annual change through Poisson regression models and the relative survival using the registry of death rate of Catalonia.
Results: The adjusted rate for leukemias between the period 1990-1994 was 8.0 per 100,000 inhabitants in men and of 5.2 in women, being the CLL the most frequent subtype. Regarding the trend of incidence an increase of the CLL of 2.2% annual (CI 95%, 0.1-6.6) in men and of 7.7% (CI 95%, 1.4-14.4) in women was observed. In the remaining subtypes, there was no trend, but the non-classified leukemias decreased a -10.8% annual (CI 95%, -15.0 to -6.4) in men and a -9.9% annual (CI 95%, 15.4 to -4.0) in women. 5-year relative survival (RS5y) for the total leukemias was 37.7% in men and 45.3% in women. It stands out the CLL with a RS5y of 64.8% in men and of 75.7% in women and childhood ALL with a RS5y of 83.0% in boys and of 84.9% in girls.
Conclusions: In Tarragona, Spain, an increase of the CLL incidence has been observed suggesting an improvement in the diagnosis, parallel to a decrease of the non-classified leukemias. The survival in this cohort of patients was similar to the that reported in other european registries.