The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Head and Neck Cancers

Added text to state that nasopharyngeal carcinoma is very uncommon in children younger than 10 years, but increases in incidence to 0.8 and 1.3 per million per year in children aged 10 to 14 years and in children aged 15 to 19 years, respectively (cited Horner et al. as reference 3).

Added text to state that the annual incidence of thyroid cancers is low in children younger than 15 years (2.0 per million), accounting for approximately 1.5% of all cancers in this age group. Thyroid cancer incidence is higher in children aged 15 to 19 years (17.6 per million), and it accounts for approximately 8% of cancers arising in this older age group.

Thoracic Cancers

Added text to state that myxomas are the most common non-cutaneous finding in Carney complex, a rare syndrome characterized by lentigines, cardiac myxomas, or other myxoid fibromas, and endocrine abnormalities, and that a mutation of the PRKAR1A gene is noted in more than 90% of the cases (cited 2007 Boikos et al. as reference 64, Carney et al. as reference 65, Stratakis et al. as reference 66, and 2006 Boikos et al. as reference 67).

Abdominal Cancer

Added text to state that primary gastric tumors in children are rare, and carcinoma of the stomach is even more unusual.

Added Lee et al. as reference 41 and level of evidence 3iiDi.

Other Rare Childhood Cancers

Added text to state that the annual incidence of melanoma increases with age from 1 to 2 per million in children younger than 10 years, to 4.1 and 16.9 per million in children aged 10 to 14 years and in children aged 15 to 19 years, respectively; melanoma accounts for about 8% of all cancers seen in children aged 15 to 19 years; and that the incidence of pediatric melanoma (in children younger than 20 years) increased by 1.7% per year between 1975 and 2006 (cited Horner et al. as reference 43).

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