Profile of Non-Hematological Pediatric Tumors: A Clinicopathological Study at a Tertiary Health Care Centre.

BACKGROUND: Tumors in pediatric age group are biologically different from tumors in adults and emerging as a significant contributor to morbidity/mortality in children. OBJECTIVES: This study evaluated the epidemiological profile of pediatric solid tumors in 0-18 years of age over a period of 5 years in a general hospital in India. RESULTS: A total of 510 cases of tumors were included, which accounted for 5.1% of the total tumor burden of the hospital. Benign tumors were more common than malignant tumors. Most common age group affected was 14-18 years. Among benign tumors, vascular tumors were the most common, while malignant bone tumors outnumbered all other malignant tumors. Neuroblastomas comprised only 0.9% of our malignancies. CONCLUSION: Our study provides an insight into the patterns of childhood tumors for which exists little literature in India. With lack of a dedicated pediatric cancer registry from India, tracking of the diverse histological spectrum of tumors is difficult.

Disseminated cysticercosis incidentally diagnosed in a patient of fracture shaft of femur.

Cysticercosis is caused by the larval form of Taenia solium tape worm, cysticercus cellulose. The life cycle of T. solium consists of 2 host, the definite host is a man who harbours the adult forms of the worm in the intestine, while the intermediate host is the pig, where the larval form (cysticercus cellulose) is found in the skeletal muscle. Cysticercosis develops when human beings incidentally become the intermediate host and the eggs mature within their small intestine. The route of entry of the eggs into the human intestine may occur through autoinfection or by ingestion of contaminated food or water. Further, these eggs develop into the larval form which spread throughout the intestinal wall and are disseminated by the blood stream to brain, muscles, subcutaneous tissues or any other organ. Until now, only 50 cases of disseminated forms have been reported in the literature, with the majority of the cases being from Indian subcontinent. Regarding the clinical presentations, symptoms usually depend on the location, size and number of cysts in the involved lesion. However, it may present occasionally with dementia, muscular hypertrophy or subcutaneous nodules with relative absence of focal neurological signs or raised intracranial pressure. We, here, report a case of disseminated cysticercosis, detected incidentally in a man aged 52 years who presented with an open fracture of the right femur.