The Spectrum of Malignant Solid Childhood Tumors in the Age Group of 0-12 Years

Abstract

Objective: To document general baseline data on the patterns of childhood malignant tumors in
a surgical pathology department.
Design, Setting and Participants: This is a retrospective analysis of 35 cases of pediatric tumors
in surgical pathology department of tertiary care hospital excluding neurosurgery, cardiothoracic
and haemato-lymphoid malignancies. (Age group 0-12 years) encountered over a period
of 5 years.
Results: 35 children were diagnosed with malignant tumors. The commonest tumor was wilms
tumor (9 out of 35 cases) followed by neuroblastoma (4 out of 35 cases). The common age of
presentation was 1-5 years with male predominance. In the renal tumors only wilms tumors
(9 cases) was seen, with classical triphasic tumors were more common. The mean age of presentation
was 3 year with commonest age group of presentation (8 cases out of 9) in the age
group 1-5 years. Three of them had showed unfavorable histology. In the adrenal gland, adrenal
medullary tumors were more common than adrenal cortex with neuroblastoma (4 of 6 cases)
as common individual tumor. Immunohistochemistry performed on 10 of 11 round cell tumors
revealed five cases of lymphoma, three cases of Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) & two cases of
Ewing sarcoma-primitive neuroectodermal tumor (EWS/PNET).
Conclusion: Histological type is important for understanding etiology and progression of disease.
The likelihood of a given type of tumor being present in a particular age or sex group or
particular site may heighten the index of suspicion and ultimately influences etiology, biology,
and natural history, relative incidence and distribution frequency, clinical presentation and
manifestations, and response to therapy and outcome.