Pattern of childhood malignant tumours in a teaching hospital in south-western Nigeria.

Objective: To document general baseline data on the patterns of childhood malignant tumours at a teaching hospital in south-western Nigeria.

Methods: A retrospective study of childhood malignancy at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, Nigeria, during an 11-year period, from January 1996 to December 2006.

Results: 77 children were diagnosed with malignant tumours (an average of seven diagnoses per year); 46 were boys (60%), giving a male-to-female ratio of 1.5 : 1. The age distribution of patients was 1-18 years. There were 42 diagnoses (55%) in the 1-5-year age group and 68 malignancies (88%) were diagnosed at ages of 12 years or younger. Lymphomas were the most prevalent malignancy identified, accounting for 31 diagnoses (40%). Burkitt's lymphoma constituted the majority of malignancies (28 cases; 36%), followed by retinoblastoma (16 cases; 21%) and nephroblastoma (11 cases; 14%). Other malignancies included germ cell tumours (6), neuroblastomas (4), osteosarcomas (3), rhabdomyosarcomas (3) and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (3). One case each of medullary thyroid carcinoma, adenocarcinoma of the rectum, invasive mucinous carcinoma of the colon were also identified.

Conclusions: These data suggest that Burkitt's lymphoma is the most common childhood malignant tumour in our geographic area of south-western Nigeria. With the rising incidence of childhood malignancy in resource-poor countries, measuring the baseline occurrence of such tumours is imperative to provide much-needed resource allocation.