Spectrum of pediatric malignancies in a referral hospital of the eastern region of India

Background: Pediatric malignancies are one of the most common causes of childhood morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of different malignancies in the pediatric age group varies from one place to another. The present study was done to find out the occurrence of childhood malignancies in the southern region of West Bengal to compare the patterns of different malignancies with other established epidemiological studies and to search for the specific causes for apparently increased occurrence of childhood malignancies. Methods: A prospective study was conducted for 7 years in which patients with pediatric malignancies were included in the study. The clinicopathological features of each case were analyzed. Results: A total number of 247 cases were included in the study among which 162 were males (65.59%). Children below the age of 5 years accounted for 90 cases (36.58%). Hematological malignancies were found in 122 cases (49.39%), and the rest constituted nonhematological malignancies (125, 50.61%). The most common malignant disorder noted was acute leukemia, constituting about 33.37% of cases (82 cases). The highest occurrence (37.9%) of malignancies was encountered in 5–10 years of age, and the next common (31.7%) was between the age group of 2 and 5 years. The most common malignancies noted in these age groups were acute leukemia, retinoblastoma, Wilm's tumor, and neuroblastoma. Conclusion: Lympho-hematogeneous malignancies were the most common followed by embryonal tumors. Although the occurrence of hematological malignancies was comparable to the similar studies of the developed countries, the corresponding figures of central nervous system tumors were considerably less.