CHILDHOOD CANCER IN EAST DELTA OF EGYPT
(SHARKIA GOVERNORATE); PROFILE & RISK FACTORS
U.R.El-Safy, M. Bader, Alaa.Zeidan, E.R. Abdel Khalek, S.M Wasif, G.
FEl-Sharkawy, M A El-Moghazy, S. K.Tawfik
Pediatric
and Public Health Departments; Faculty of Medicine-Zagazig University Egypt
Childhood cancer is
getting an increasing national interest because of its social and economic
effect on the nation and family’s level and because of its liability to
cure with early diagnosis and proper management. However, no accurate data
are available concerning this problem in Sharkia (east delta of Egypt). The
present study was conducted in Sharkia governorate in the years 1999-2000
to find out the distribution and determinants of childhood cancer in
Sharkia governorate. The study included two main parts; Record analysis and
case-control study. In the first record, analysis done in the five
consequent years (1995-1999) found the time trend, relative frequency of
different topographical sites of cancer presented for treatment in any of
the departments of the included centers in the study, with age, sex,
residence distribution and geographical distribution among different
districts. In the case-control study, 301 cases of childhood cancer and
equal number of controls were interviewed in the included centers
throughout the year 1999 to find out the possible risk factors of childhood
cancer in Sharkia and to study the disease pattern. It was found that the
total number of childhood cancer cases at the included centers was 1102
cases in the years (1995-1999) and they were unequally distributed among
the 5 years but continuously increasing from 172 cases in 1995 (15.6%) to
269 Cases in 1999(24.4%). Most recorded cases of childhood cancers were
rural inhabitants and the rural/urban ratio was 4.3. The number of cases
with leukemia started to decrease since 1997 onward while the number of
cases of lymphoma and solid tumors were continuously increasing over the 5
years of the study. Central nervous system tumors constituted 31.4% while
bone tumors constituted 17.5%.
Favorable results with treatment occurred in 67.7% of the studied
cases in the form of cure (in 4%), improvement (in 35.5%) and response (in
28.2%) while unfavorable an outcome in the remaining 32.3% of cases
included no response in 10%, relapse in 12.3% of cases and spread in 10% of
cases. Studying the risk factors for childhood cancer in the case-control
study revealed that smoking, pesticides, drugs and burning exhausts were
the main risk factors in east delta of Egypt.