Cyprus reports rise in new childhood cancer cases over past decade

Nicosia, Cyprus. New childhood cancer cases in Cyprus have risen over the past decade, prompting concern among health experts as the reasons for the increase remain unclear. Data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organisation (WHO), did not show a similar trend in other European countries.

Concern over rising diagnoses

Konstantinos Makris, Professor of Environmental Health at the Exposome and Personalised Health Laboratory and Director of the Cyprus International Institute for Environmental and Public Health at the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT/TEPAK), said the increase in new cases was a serious concern.

He said attention should focus on a child’s “exposome”, which includes environmental factors, habits and exposures affecting a person from conception onwards.

According to Makris, factors including the air children breathe, the water they drink, diet, sedentary lifestyles, radiation and exposure to chemical substances such as pesticides may interact and contribute to cancer development.

He said the lack of sufficient and systematic data meant the scientific community could not identify the root causes or design meaningful primary prevention measures for Cyprus’ child population.

Call for health and exposure monitoring

Makris called for observatories to monitor children’s health and exposome in order to identify factors associated with the disease and develop primary prevention policies.

He said Cyprus had so far failed to establish such monitoring and urged the state to invest not only in treatment but also in investigating the causes of illnesses among children.

IARC-WHO data and cancer registry

Makris said IARC-WHO has systematically produced studies mapping cancer types and their distribution globally by country, population, age group, gender and trends over time.

For Cyprus, the Cancer Registry collects data on new cases and cancer deaths and submits it to IARC-WHO.

He said cancer deaths, where cancer is the main cause, have stabilised in both children and adults in recent years. Although he said a decline would be preferable given advances in diagnosis and treatment, he noted that stable death figures were positive because new cancer cases had increased.

Types of childhood cancer

Makris said the data submitted to the WHO covers Cyprus as a whole, meaning it cannot show whether the increase concerns specific areas. He said figures from the Ministry of Health could potentially provide more detailed geographical information.

The most common childhood cancers among those aged up to 19 include leukaemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and brain or central nervous system cancers, he said.

Makris said that, rather than stabilising, the number of new childhood cancer cases had increased over the past 10 years.