Mucocutaneous side effects of chemotherapy in children: a cross-sectional study in Kerman, Iran

Complications of chemotherapy most commonly involve highly proliferative cells, including the skin and its appendages and mucosa. This study evaluated mucocutaneous complications of chemotherapy in children with cancer. This descriptive cross-sectional study involved 92 children who received chemotherapy at the Pediatric Oncology Ward of Afzalipour Hospital, Kerman, Iran, between September 2018 and March 2019. Demographic and clinical features of the patients were collected by history, physical examination, and laboratory tests (biopsy, fungal and bacterial smears if necessary). Frequency and percentage were used for qualitative analysis. Mean ± standard deviation was used for quantitative analysis. The mean age of patients was 6.60 ± 3.70 years (range 1 to 16 years). More than half of the patients (55.4%) were males. The most common malignancy was acute lymphocytic lymphoma (ALL). More than half of the children (60%) had mucocutaneous complications due to chemotherapy; these were significantly more common in boys than girls (70.6% vs. 48.8%). The mean age of children with mucocutaneous complications (7.41 ± 3.98) was significantly higher than those without complications (5.33 ± 2.84). The most common mucocutaneous side effects were, in order, alopecia, mucositis, and skin infections. We found that side effects of chemotherapy weresignificantly more common in older children, boys, and childrenwith leukemia. Vincristine was the most common culprit.