Cancer incidence and mortality in Indigenous Australian children, 1997-2008

We report cancer incidence and mortality among Indigenous children in Australia and compare the results with corresponding data for non-Indigenous children. This information is important in understanding the overall burden of cancer in this population, and where disparities exist, to plan what action is required. Age-standardized rates, and indirectly standardized incidence and mortality ratios (SIRs and SMRs) were calculated for the years 1997-2008. There were 224 cancers identified among Indigenous children (99.5 per million per year) and 52 Indigenous children died from cancer during the study period (22.9 per million per year). The SIR for all cancers was 0.64 (95% CI=0.56-0.73; P<0.001) while the SMR was 0.81 (95% CI=0.61-1.07). These results provide a baseline with which to monitor cancer among Indigenous children over time.