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Abstract

Background: Although neuroblastoma (NB) is one of the most common neoplasms in children, the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare opted to halt the mass screening program for NB at 6 months of age in 2004. It is important to determine the impact of this cessation on NB mortality.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective survey of patients with neuroblastoma as descriptive epidemiology. Mortality rates of NB below 15 years of age were observed using vital statistics data in Japan, covering the period from 1999 through 2014. We observed deaths classified as C74.9, C38.1, C38.2, C38.3, and C48.0 in our analysis, because NB does not have a unique code according to the ICD-10th classification system.

Results: A total of 631 deaths, an average of 45 per year, were recorded for children under 14 in the 16-year study period. This comprised 356 males and 275 females, giving a male to female ratio of 1.29. Both sexes showed a peak in deaths at age 4, after which mortality declined. The annual transition in mortality rate was not markedly different from the annual transition in number of deaths. We compared 2 birth cohort groups: one from 1999 to 2003, in which children had undergone mass screening, to one from 2004 to 2014, in which they had not, and found no marked difference between the two cohorts.

Conclusions: Our results indicate no overall increase in the child neuroblastoma mortality rate in childhood as a result of cessation of the mass screening program.

Keywords: Neuroblastoma; Mass screening; Mortality; Descriptive epidemiology; Japan