Patterns of Solid Childhood Malignancies in Jimma University Medical Center, Southwest Ethiopia – A Histopathologic Approach

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer is among the most common cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Children are not spared, however, the burden of childhood cancer is either unknown or neglected in developing countries. Childhood malignancies deserves separate analyses. Objective:- To determine the patterns of childhood neoplasms in Jimma university medical center, Southwest Ethiopia. Methods: - A retrospective study design was employed from September 2013 to August 2017. All children under the age of 15 years with histologically confirmed diagnosis of neoplasia were selected, data was collected, cleaned, grouped and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Results: - There were 140 cases of childhood solid neoplasms among 59.3% were malignancies. The majority of malignancies occurred in age group 0 – 4 years (38.6%) and 10 – 14 years (34.9%).The majority of malignancies (81.2%) were from rural area. The most common extracranial solid malignancies were retinoblastoma (27.7%), soft tissue sarcomas (21.7%), lymphomas (10.8%), nephroblastoma (9.6%) and malignant bone tumors (9.6%). Discussion and Conclusion: - The magnitude of solid childhood malignancy was increasing during the study period. Overall retinoblastoma, soft tissue sarcomas and lymphomas accounted for around 60% of solid childhood malignancies. Embryonal tumors are found to be common in under 5 children. The frequency of epithelial and malignant melanoma, gonadal germ cell tumors and bone malignancies increases with age. Burkitt’s lymphoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma and neuroblastomas are less frequent while soft tissue sarcomas are more frequent in the study area.