Introduction: Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in children aged 1 to 14 years in Canada. Despite the importance to public health of childhood cancer, there have been few reports on Canadian trends published in the peer-reviewed literature. This study examines childhood cancer trends by age, sex, and province of residence using the most current cancer registration data.

Methods: Data from the population-based Canadian Cancer Registry were used to compute incidence trends in primary cancers diagnosed between 1992 and 2006 in children (0-14 years) for the 12 major diagnostic groups of the International Classification of Childhood Cancer, 3rd edition.

Results : Between 1992 and 2006, incidence rates for all cancers remained stable, although trends varied by cancer type. We observed a significant decrease in retinoblastoma in boys for the entire period (−6.5% per year) and an increase in leukemia from 1992 to 1999 (+3.5% per year). In girls, there was a significant decrease in renal tumours from 1998 to 2006 (−5.7% per year) and an increase in hepatic tumours from 1997 to 2006 (+8.1% per year). Differences by age and province were also apparent. Some caution should be exercised when interpreting trends involving a small number of cases per year and those with wide 95% confidence intervals.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest an ongoing need for population-based surveillance and etiologic research.