The cancer rate for Afro-American children in the United States is about 80 percent of that seen in white children; children who are black do not have the same incidence of common cancers such as acute lymphocytic leukemia and lymphomas as children who are white. Black children rarely have Ewing's sarcoma , but there is a suggestion that they have a higher incidence of Wilms' tumor , retinoblastoma and the bone tumor known as osteogenic sarcoma.
Several cancers in children—leukemias and Wilms' tumors, for example—peak in incidence between the ages of two and four years. Others, such as lymphomas and bone cancer, have a peak incidence in older children.
At Significantly Higher Risk
• Previous exposure to radiation.
• Children who do not have an iris—the colored circle in their eye—have a higher incidence of developing the kidney cancer called Wilms' tumor.
• Children whose body is bigger on one side than the other (hemihypertrophy) have a higher incidence of Wilms'
tumor.
• Males with an undescended testicle (cryptorchidism) are at higher risk for testicular cancer.
• Children with the skin disease xeroderma pigmentosum have a higher risk of developing skin cancer.
• Children with the immune disorder ataxia telangiectasia, Down's syndrome, Fanconi's anemia and Bloom's
syndrome are at higher risk for developing leukemia.
