Background:
The prevalence of pediatric tumors has been increasing rapidly worldwide in recent years. It has become very important to investigate the awareness of physicians and pediatricians regarding childhood oncology and its diagnosis and referral. So this study was aimed to assess the perception, attitude, and awareness of pediatric oncology among undergraduate medical students.
Methodology:
The study was conducted in 500 undergraduate students in a pediatric clinical at Al-Majmaah University. A 12 point survey was formulated to assess the understanding of pediatric malignancies and the interest in childhood tumors among undergraduate medical students.
Results:
The majority (80%) of participants had pursued pediatrics as a career, and only 20% of them had not pursued pediatric oncology as a career. Among the total, 54% of the students had not witnessed paediatric tumor patients in the ward. Further, 52% had not received lectures on childhood oncology. Among the total, 58% of the students thought that they had enough knowledge of childhood cancer to diagnose and refer pediatric tumor patients correctly. Though, 98% believed that improvement was required in pediatric oncology teaching in their medical curriculum.
Conclusions: There is a good perception of pediatric tumors among undergraduate medical students and the majority of them had confidence in their ability to recognize and manage pediatric malignancies. However, pediatric oncology curriculum needs to be improved.
Key words: Awareness, childhood cancer, undergraduates
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