Non CNS pediatric malignancies in Mosul

Abstract

Objectives: To find out the types of pediatric malignancies in patients from Mosul, their age and sex distribution as well as the death rate among these diseases with special emphasis on acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Patients and methods: A survey which was conducted in Mosul pediatric wards of oncology in Alsalam, Ibn Sina general hospitals and Ibn Alatheer hospital for pediatric diseases on 228 children of both sexes, their ages were less than 12 years from year 2001-2007. The clinical data were taken from their case sheets regarding age, sex, clinical presentation at time of admission and the lab tests including tissue biopsy as well as bone marrow examination. Results: The commonest 3 types of these malignancies were acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (43.4%), lymphoma (19.5%) and neuroblastoma (7.9%). The mean age of presentation was 65 months; the majority of cases were between 13 months - 6 years. Males predominate in a ratio of 1.28/1. Regarding ALL the main clinical features at presentation were fever, pallor, bone pain and bleeding. All cases were treated as inpatients. Death rate was high (35.08 %), the commonest causes were sepsis, bleeding and progressive disease. Conclusion: There were different types of malignancies in children in Mosul, the commonest were ALL, Lymphoma and neuroblastoma, with high death rate.