Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health
- ISSN: 3065-9078
Pondy Ongotsoyi Angele Hermine, Nyemb Mbog grace Joelle Therese and Louise Renee Loe
The incidence of childhood cancer worldwide has risen by 30% in the last twenty years. Every year, 80% of cases originate in developing countries, and 60% of this die. To improve survival rates, epidemiological surveillance is essential. We conducted a study of the epidemiological profile of children with cancer at the Chantal Biya Foundation's Mother and Child Center. We carried out a retrospective descriptive study. We carried out a consecutive and exhaustive recruitment in the period from January 2016 to December 2022. We included patients with a confirmed diagnosis of cancer. We recruited 765 patients, including 336 girls and 429 boys, for a sex ratio of 1.35. Mean age was 7.64 ± 4.58 years (min 1.6 months - max 19 years). The most common age group was under 5 (41.31%). In 47.9% of cases, the interval between the appearance of the first symptoms and the first consultation in the haemato-oncology department was greater than 3 months. The most frequent clinical manifestation was adenopathy in 49.67% of cases. The most common malignancies were, in descending order, Burkitt's lymphoma (25.75%), ALL (13.46%) and nephroblastoma (10.5%). More than half the patients (65.5%) arrived at the pilot unit with advanced disease. Treatment was initiated in 645 (84.31%) patients. During treatment, 95.57% (539 patients) presented febrile neutropenia as the main complication, followed by severe anemia in 92.91% (524). In our study series, the drop-out rate was estimated at 31.11% (238), the death rate at 45.23% (346) and 23.66% (181) had survived. Knowledge of the epidemiological profile of pediatric cancers at the CME/FCB is a step forward in developing strategies to improve management with the aim of increasing survival rates.