Clinico-pathological profile of paediatric head and neck cancers in Tanzania: Findings from the country’s largest tertiary hospital

Abstract

Background: Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the world and the largest burden occurs in developing countries where such burden of infectious diseases is also high. Data on the clinico-pathological profile of paediatric head and neck cancers is scarce in Tanzania. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in Tanzania to characterize such profile. Methods: A hospital based descriptive cross sectional study was conducted involving 180 pediatric patients at Muhimbili National Hospital. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS program version 21. Results: A total of 180 paediatric patients were recruited where 61.1% were males with a male to female ratio of 1.57:1 and majority fell into the 0-5years age range (53.9%). Ten primary anatomical sites were found with the neck (cervical lymph node) (36.1%) predominating followed by the orbit/eye (34.4%) and the least common site was parapharyngeal space (0.5%). The neck was more affected in patients aged 6-11 years with a diagnosis of lymphomas (98.5%) whereas the orbit was affected predominantly in those aged 0-5 years (90.3%) by retinoblastoma (79%). The predominant histocytopathological variant was lymphoma (52.8%) and the least was Langerhans cell histiocytosis (0.6%). Lymphomas and retinoblastoma occurred commonly in males (70.53% and 53.06% respectively) but sarcomas showed no gender predilection. Lymphomas (32.6%) and retinoblastomas (93.9%) predominated in patients aged 6-11 years and 0-5 years respectively. Conclusions: Lymphomas, retinoblastomas and sarcomas were more predominant in paediatric patients similar to what has been reported in various reports elsewhere.