[The Age and Sex Frequencies of Patients with Leukemia Seen in Two Reference Centers in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City]

Introduction: In developing countries, there is commonly a lack of population-based cancer registries or underreporting, thus not recognizing the true dimensions of the problem.

Aim: To describe the age and sex frequencies of the major subtypes of leukemias in two hospitals of reference in the metropolitan area of Mexico City.

Material And Methods: This is a descriptive and retrospective study, based on medical records of two hematology services during January 2007 to October 2014; all cases diagnosed with leukemia were included.

Results: A total of 1,432 cases were included with a median age of 38 years (range, two months to 115 years). There were significant age differences between subtypes of leukemia (ANOVA test, p = 0.000): chronic lymphocytic with a mean age of 64.8 years, higher than chronic myeloid (43.4 years) and all acute leukemias (lymphoblastic: 32.6 years, myeloblastic 43.5 years). Of the patients, 51.8% (n = 742) were women, although males predominated in chronic myeloid (57.8%) and lymphocytic (60%) leukemia. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia was the more common variety, FABL2 subtype, followed by myeloid leukemia M4, M2, and chronic myeloid.

Conclusions: It is necessary to develop inter-institutional works in order to group data of different population sectors and improve the epidemiological profile of leukemia in Mexico.