Pattern of Childhood Cancers Presenting to the Paediatric Cancer Unit of a Tertiary Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana
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Date
2015-11-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MedCrave
Abstract
Introduction: Childhood cancers are increasing in incidence worldwide with
geographic differences having an impact on the types of cancers seen. The main
aim of this study was to assess the trends in yearly proportions and number of
cases seen, to determine age and gender proportions of the types of cancers and
types of childhood cancers diagnosed at the cancer unit from 2012 through 2014.
The purpose of this study is to set the baseline framework for future research
to improve knowledge, clinical care and advocacy programmes for the newly
established paediatric cancer unit in KATH in Kumasi, Ghana.
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to review secondary data from the
paediatric cancer registry of all patients aged 0-15 years diagnosed with cancer
by fine needle aspiration cytology and tissue biopsy at the paediatric cancer unit
from 2012-2014. Demographic, anthropometric and clinical data stored in excel
was exported to Stata and analysed. Simple descriptive statistics was used and
presented in tables.
Results: Out of 309 cases, 187(60.5%, 95%CI: 54.8-66.0) were males. Burkitt’s
lymphoma (126, 40.8%) was the most common cancer seen followed by Acute
Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (31, 10%), Wilm’s Tumour (28, 9.1%), other NonHodgkin’s Lymphoma (28, 9.1%), and retinoblastoma (22, 7.1%). Hodgkin’s
Lymphoma was the commonest cancer in the age group 10-15 years, Burkitt ’s
lymphoma in the 5-10 year age group and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in the
under 5 years group.
Conclusion and Recommendations: There is an observable trend in the
progressive increment in the number of cancer cases presenting to the unit
over the three years period. Except for the lymphomas, CNS cancers and
osteosarcomas which were commoner in the 5-9 years age group, most of the
other childhood cancers; leukaemias, renal cancers, soft tissue sarcomas and
neuroblatomas were predominant in the 0-4 year age group. Except for a few
rare cancers, majority of the common cancers affected more males than females
in the paediatric population studied. The Male: Female ratio of all the cases was
1.5:1. The lymphomas were the commonest cancers diagnosed with Burkitt’s
lymphoma being the highest among the 5-9 years group. The acute lymphoblastic
leukaemias were next to the lymphomas in KATH. Based on these findings, further
studies need to be conducted into the specific clinical patterns particularly, the
lymphomas and leukaemias for better case management.
Description
Published in the Journal of Cancer Prevention & Current Research.Volume 3 Issue 3 - 2015.
Keywords
Pattern, Lymphoma, Leukaemia, Paediatric Cancer Unit, Ghana
Citation
Published in the Journal of Cancer Prevention & Current Research. Volume 3 Issue 3 - 2015