Pediatric cancer spectrum in Kenya: a histopathologic review.

BACKGROUND

Pediatric malignancies constitute a unique health care burden especially in resource-poor settings such as Africa, and the use of external epidemiologic data in managing these children may lead to erroneous approaches.

METHODS

A retrospective histopathologic analysis of 6,771 pathology reports between March 1992 and August 2006 was undertaken in children under the age of 18. Data were derived from the Kijabe Hospital pathology database, which receives pathologic specimens from 70 different mission hospitals, clinics, and regional hospitals throughout Kenya.

RESULTS

1,217 of these specimens represented malignancies. The top ten pediatric malignancies were Burkitt's lymphoma (16.6%), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (8.5%), Hodgkin's lymphoma (7.6%), Kaposi's sarcoma (7.6%), osteosarcoma (7.3%), gonadal germ-cell tumors (5.8%), rhabdomyosarcoma (3.5%), nephroblastoma (3.4%), epithelial carcinoma (2.8%), and chondrosarcoma (1.8%).

CONCLUSION

Comparison with several previous African and western pediatric cancer databases is undertaken, revealing significant trends useful for the care of children with cancer in the region.