• Ines B Brecht, Claudia Bremensdorfer, Dominik T Schneider, Michael C Frühwald, Sonja Offenmüller, Rolf Mertens, Peter Vorwerk, Ewa Koscielniak, Stefan S Bielack, Martin Benesch, Barbara Hero, Norbert Graf, Dietrich von Schweinitz, and Peter Kaatsch.
• Pediatric Oncology and Hematology-Children's University Hospital, Erlangen, Germany.
• Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2014 Jul 1;61(7):1202-9.

BackgroundThe German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR) annually registers approximately 2,000 children diagnosed with a malignant disease (completeness of registration >95%). While most pediatric cancer patients are diagnosed and treated according to standardized cooperative protocols of the German Society for Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (GPOH), patients with rare tumors are at risk of not being integrated in the network including trials and reference centers.ProcedureA retrospective analysis of all rare extracranial solid tumors reported to the GCCR 2001-2010 (age <18 years) was undertaken using a combination of the International Classification of Childhood Cancer (ICCC-3) and the International Classification of Diseases-Oncology (ICD-O-3). Tumors accounting for <0.3% of all malignancies were defined as rare (approx. 6 cases/year and registered malignancy).ResultsAccording to this definition 1,189 rare extracranial solid tumors (18.2% of all malignant extracranial solid tumors) were registered, among these 232 patients (19.5% of rare tumor cases), were not included in preexisting GPOH studies/registries. Within 10 years, the number of registered non-GPOH-trial patients with a rare tumor increased.ConclusionsThough most of the GCCR-registered patients with rare malignant tumors are treated within GPOH trials, there is a considerable number of patients that have been diagnosed and treated outside the structures of the GPOH. These patients should be reported to the recently founded German Pediatric Rare Tumor Registry (STEP). Active data accrual and the development of appropriate structures will allow for better registration and improvement of medical care in these patients.© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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