Abstract
Introduction: Cancers form one of the major causes of death in children between the ages of one and 15 years. They differ markedly from adult cancers in their nature, distribution and prognosis. The patterns of childhood cancers in America and Europe are almost the same, with leukemia and central nervous system tumors accounting for over one-half of the new cases. In contrast, lymphoma is the most common prevailing cancer of this age group in Africa.
Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the patterns of childhood cancers in Gezira State, Central Sudan. It is a retrospective study using hospital records. All children with cancer, aged 1 - 15 years diagnosed by means of histological or cytological examination admitted to the Institute of Nuclear Medicine, Molecular Biology and Oncology from May 1999 - December 2004 were included in the study.
Results: The results showed a pattern of childhood lymphoma as the most common cancer (42.8%) followed by acute lymphoblastic leukemia (19.8%) and kidney tumor (12.8%). The prevalence of cancer was found to be higher among boys (64.7%) than girls (35.3%) with a rate of 1.8:1. Most of the children admitted with cancer were from rural areas (66.1%) compared to (33.9%) from urban areas.
Conclusion: Lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and bone tumor commonly occurred in children above 5 years in contradistinction to kidney tumor and retinoblastoma which was prevalent in children less than 5 years of age.