Pediatric solid cancer; a larkana experience

ABSTRACT

This prospective study was conducted to evaluate pattern and frequency of solid pediatric cancers of children in upper Sindh. Total number of cases was 214. Male to female ratio was 1.971 and mean age of patients was 8.7 years. Maximum number of patients were in 10-15 year age group [43.94%]. The five most frequent tumours were lymphoma [46.29%], soft tissue sarcoma [19.62%], retinoblastoma [11.68%], bone tumour [9.34%] and Wilm's tumour [7.0%]. CNS tumours were not represented in the study due to lack of neurosurgical facilities. Retinoblastoma and Wilm's tumour were more common in 0-4 year age group, whereas rest of the tumours were more frequent in 5-9 and 10-15 year age groups. Hodgkin's disease [62 cases] was more common than non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [37 cases], with higher male preponderance in the former [4.161] than in the latter [2.71]. Mixed cellularity was the largest subtype of HD [66.14%], whereas diffuse small cell [45.96%] dominated the NHL variants. We observed that HD was more common than NHL, and male to female ratio was higher in the former than in the latter in our study as compared to those reported from abroad. Further studies will confirm our findings: