Abstract:
: Out of 200,000 new cases of childhood cancer worldwide, 80% are from developing
countries. This study was conducted to evaluate pattern and frequency of malignant diseases among
children, in northern Pakistan. Methods: This retrospective hospital based study was carried out at
Paediatric Oncology Department of Combined Military Hospital Rawalpindi from 1st January 2012 to
30th June 2017. All new patients below 15 years of age with confirmed diagnosis of malignant diseases
were included. Medical records of patients were analyzed and frequencies were calculated according to
diagnosis, sex and age. Results: A total of 1,087 new patients, 734 male and 353 female, were included
in the study. Mean age was 5.5±3.5 years. Majority of children (47.8%) were in age group 1–5 years,
followed by age group 5–10 years (31.9%). Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) was the commonest
malignancy seen in 38.2% of patients. Other common malignancies were Acute Myeloid Leukaemia
(AML) 15.5%, Hodgkin Lymphoma 7.4%, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma 5.4%, Wilms’ tumour 6.1%,
Neuroblastoma 4.6%, Rhabdomyosarcoma 3.8%, Retinoblastoma 3.5% and Brain tumours 3.5%.
Among infants (<1 year age), Acute leukaemia and Wilms’ tumour were more common. Overall male to
female ratio was 2:1. Almost all tumours were more prevalent in males except Ewing Sarcoma (M/F
1:1.08) and Wilms’ tumour (M/F 1:1). Conclusion: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia is the commonest
paediatric malignancy in our population. It is in accordance with other regional and international studies.
We have relatively higher frequency of AML and lower frequency of brain tumours
