Abstract
Cancer is the first cause of death by disease in childhood globally. The most frequent types of cancers in children and adolescents are leukemias, followed by brain and central nervous system tumors and lymphomas. The recovery rate of cancer in children is around 80% in developed countries and up to 30% in developing countries. Some of the main causes of complications in children and adolescents with cancer are respiratory viral infections, mainly in bone marrow-transplanted patients. Respiratory viruses have been detected in the bronchoalveolar lavage or nasal wash specimens from cancer patients with or without respiratory illness symptoms. Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is within the ten most common viruses that are encountered in samples from pediatric patients with underlying oncology conditions. In most of cases, HMPV is found as the only viral agent, but co-infection with other viruses or with bacterial agents has also been reported. The discrepancies between the most prevalent viral agents may be due to the different populations studied or the range of viral agents tested. Some of the cases of infection with HMPV in cancer patients have been fatal, especially in those who have received a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. This review seeks to show a general view of the participation of HMPV in respiratory illness as a complication of cancer in childhood and adolescence.
Highlights
Cancer is the first cause of death by disease in childhood globally
The identification of human enterovirus, human metapneumovirus (HMPV), human rhinovirus, human coronavirus, and human adenovirus should be accomplished if the above-mentioned tests had negative results or when there is a risk of contagion [5]
Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) has been reported as the only viral agent that was responsible for an outbreak in a pediatric oncology population [27] (Table 1)
Summary
The five-year rate of survival of children who have cancer is up to 80% in developed countries, but for developing countries, the survival rate is less than 30% [1]. According to a study based in cancer registries from 52 countries, the types of cancer in childhood (0–19 years old) during 2001–2010 were leukemia, lymphoma, central nervous system tumors, sympathetic nervous system tumors, retinoblastoma, renal tumors, hepatic tumors, bone tumors, soft tissue sarcomas, germ cell and gonadal tumors, epithelial tumors, and melanomas. The most frequent cancers in children of 0–14 years are leukemia, followed by lymphoma; for the ages of. The years of life lost due to cancer in childhood (0–19 years old) were calculated with global cancer registries in 2017, with a result of more than 11 million years [3].
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