Аңдатпа
BACKGROUND: Studying the epidemiology of cancer in any country allows us to identify problems in the healthcare system as a whole and predict their future burden. However, no large-scale studies of the epidemiology of childhood cancer have been conducted in Kazakhstan to date. This study is the first to analyze cancer incidence rates among children in the Republic of Kazakhstan using data from the country's population-based registry of childhood cancers. METHODS: We performed a population-based descriptive analysis of childhood cancer incidence in Kazakhstan from 2015 to 2024, using annual case counts and age-specific denominators from Electronic Registry of Oncological Patients (EROP). Incidence rates were calculated per 1,000,000 children; age-standardized rates used world-standard weights for ages 0-14 and 0-17. Temporal trends were measured by annual percent change (APC) via log-linear regression and average annual percent change (AAPC) with segmented log-linear regression. RESULTS: Between 2015 and 2024, EROP reported 507-638 childhood cancer cases annually, with crude incidence rates of 86.8-108.5 per 1,000,000 children (highest in 2017, lowest in 2019). The overall incidence remained stable (APC -1.20%/year, p = 0.112), and was consistently higher in males (IRR 1.13-1.48). Children aged 0-4 years had the highest age-specific incidence (123.5 per 1,000,000), while a significant decrease was seen in ages 10-14 (APC -1.99%/year, p = 0.014). Hepatic tumors increased (APC +3.86%/year, p = 0.044), retinoblastoma declined sharply (APC -8.61%/year, p = 0.001), with other groups showing no significant changes. CONCLUSION: Overall childhood cancer incidence in Kazakhstan remained broadly stable during 2015-2024, with consistently higher rates in males than females. Diagnosis-specific analyses identified increasing hepatic tumors and a marked decline in retinoblastoma, underscoring the importance of continued registry-based surveillance to monitor subtype-specific trends.