Prevalence and outcome of malignant infant tumors seen at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Akinsete, A.M.
Majiyagbe, O.O.
Ulonnam, N.E.
Nwankwo, V.I.
Alakaloko, A.E.
Temiye, E. O.
Akinsulie, A.A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Niger Delta University
Abstract
There is an upsurge in pediatric oncology cases seen worldwide with a commensurate improvement in survival. Infant tumors are a subset of this group and are more challenging to treat. There is a dearth of data in Nigeria largely due to the absence of a dedicated pediatric population-based cancer registry. The aim of this review was to document the prevalence as well as outcome of malignant infant tumors seen at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital over a thirty-month period. This was a retrospective audit from January 2015 till June 2017 at the pediatric oncology ward of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Data was entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and exported into SPSS Version 20 for analysis. There were 15 infants among the 178 children seen in the study period corresponding to 8.4% with a slight male preponderance, 1.1:1. The commonest tumor seen was retinoblastoma that accounted for 53.3% of the
study population. Majority of the infants had unilateral disease. All the infants who had bilateral disease
died. All the patients with rhabdomyosarcoma defaulted after some courses of chemotherapy and no patient with neuroblastoma survived. Mortality rates and treatment abandonment were very high among infants with malignancies. The lack of a robust national health insurance policy is a major contributing factor.
Description
Staff publications
Keywords
Infant tumours , Prevalence outcome , Mortality rate , Health insurance
Citation
Akinsete AM, Majiyagbe OO, Ulonnam NE, Nwankwo VI, Alakaloko AE, Temiye EO, Akinsulie AO. Prevalence and outcome of malignant infant tumors seen at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. Niger Delta Medical Journal 2019; 3(2):43-48