Abstract

Childhood tumors comprise only about 1% of all diagnosed tumors and every year, approximately 400,000 children are diagnosed with cancer globally. In India, childhood malignancies range from 1.6-4.8% between 0-15 years of age. The records of all the tumors diagnosed histopathologically in children ≤14 years of age during a period of 5 years were retrieved and analyzed. For classification, the International Classification of Childhood Cancers (ICCC-3), based on International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O-3), was followed. Written informed consent for publication of their clinical details and histopathological images was obtained from the parent/legal guardian of the patients. A total number of 160 cases were included in the study among which 99 were males (62%). The highest occurrence (48.13%) of malignancies was observed in 10-14 years of age in which most common malignancies noted were lymphoma (24.37%), followed by malignant bone tumors (21.27%) and CNS neoplasm (20.63%). Next common age group was between 0-4 years (31.7%) in which embryonal tumors including medulloblastoma, neuroblastoma, Wilms tumor and hepatoblastoma were more common. It can be concluded from our study that male predominance is a salient feature of childhood tumors. Most common childhood tumors originate from embryonal tissue while tumors of epithelial origin are rare. This large pediatric population based Indian study would provide us with greater insight details into pediatric tumors, and would play a pivotal role in facilitating early diagnosis and implementing effective disease management strategies for pediatric patients.

Key words: Childhood, embryonal, lymphoma, tumors