The Epidemiological Study of Children with Malignant Disorders in the Pediatric Department at Menoufia University Hospital, Menoufia, Egypt during the Last Fifteen Years

This study aims to assess the epidemiological, clinical, and paraclinical characteristics and survival of childhood with malignant disorders in the pediatrics department, menoufia University Hospital.

A retrospective study with clinical and epidemiological data from patients was conducted on 314 children who attended Pediatric Department, Haematology-Oncology Unit, Menoufia University Hospital during the last fifteen years.

314 children were assessed, their ages ranged from 2 months-18 years with mean 5.96±3.79 years. Also, 252 (80.3%) were diagnosed with hematological malignancies, and 62 (19.5%) were diagnosed with solid tumors. Among hematological malignancies, 186 were diagnosed with acute leukemia, 158 (49.7%) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and 28 (8.8%) with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The most frequent clinical presentations were fever in 95.24% in hematological malignancies vs 48.4% in solid (p<0.001),, pallor in 92.5% in hematological malignancies vs 69.4% in solid (p<0.001), hepatomegaly in 81.3% in hematological malignancies vs 37.1% in solid (p<0.001),, lymphadenopathy in 77.6 % in hematological malignancies vs 24.2% in solid (p<0.001), and splenomegaly in 76.3% of hematological malignancies vs 12.9% in solid (p<0.001),The majority of the patients 64.15% had white blood cells (WBCs) less than 50,000/mm³, while 35.85% had WBCs more or equal to 50,000/mm³ with significant relation with risk stratification (p=0.001). The survivors who finished their treatment course were 31.8% and the recurence patients were 9%.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most frequent childhood hematological neoplasm. Various clinical and laboratory features present at the time of initial diagnosis can predict the likelihood that a patient will remain in remission or not including age: under 1 and over 10 years, gender: male sex, WBCS more than 50,000/mm³ at presentation.