Incidence and survival of retinoblastoma in Taiwan: a nationwide population-based study 1998-2011.
OBJECTIVE
To study the epidemiology of retinoblastoma in Taiwan from 1998 to 2011.


DESIGN
This was a retrospective population-based cohort study using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database.


RESULTS
The present study included 154 patients (92 males, 62 females) with retinoblastoma and the documented overall retinoblastoma incidence was 1 in 17 373 live births without a notable trend over the study period. The incidence per million live births examined by gender was 65.8 for males and 48.5 for females. The age-specific sex ratio increased from 1.4 at age younger than 1 year to 3.0 above age 4 years. Enucleation was performed in 109 (70.8%) children with retinoblastoma, and it was more prevalent in males than in females (77.2% vs 61.3%, p=0.0335). Multivariate Cox regression analyses with adjustment for diagnostic age, sex, and birth year elucidated that enucleation was a significant factor associated with survival (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.61).


CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of retinoblastoma in Taiwan exhibited no marked trend over time. There were more cases of males than females and the male-to-female rate ratio increased with age. Survival outcome was significantly associated with the intervention of enucleation.
['Li|Su-Yin|SY|', 'Chen|Solomon Chih-Cheng|SC|http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0031-6147', 'Tsai|Ching-Fang|CF|', 'Sheu|Shew-Meei|SM|', 'Yeh|Jun-Jun|JJ|', 'Tsai|Chong-Bin|CB|']
D000293:Adolescent D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007223:Infant D008297:Male D011159:Population Surveillance D019572:Retinal Neoplasms D012175:Retinoblastoma D012189:Retrospective Studies D015996:Survival Rate D013624:Taiwan
Epidemiology Child health (paediatrics) Neoplasia