Children treated for solid tumors and lymphomas are at considerable risk of some disturbances in developing dental structures. RT increased the severity of disturbances induced by CT. Studies should further elucidate dose-, age and time-related effects of anticancer treatment on dental development.

Catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CABSIs) are common complications encountered with cancer treatment. The aims of this study were to analyze the factors associated with recurrent infection and catheter removal in pediatric hematology-oncology patients. All cases of CABSIs in patients attending the Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology between January 2008 and December 2010 were reviewed. A total of 44 episodes of CABSIs, including multiple episodes involving the same catheter, were identified in 31 children with cancer. The overall CABSIs rate was 7.4 infections per 1000 central venous catheter (CVC) days. The most frequent organism isolated was coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (CONS). The CVC was removed in nine (20.4%) episodes. We found that hypotension, persistent bacteremia, Candida infection, exit-side infection, neutropenia, and prolonged duration of neutropenia were the factors for catheter removal. There were 23 (52.2%) episodes of recurrence or reinfection. Mortality rate was found to be 9.6% in children with CABSIs. In this study, we found that CABSIs rate was 7.4 infections per 1000 catheter-days. CABSIs rates in our hematology-oncology patients are comparable to prior reports. Because CONS is the most common isolated microorganism in CABSIs, vancomycin can be considered part of the initial empirical regimen.

The objective of the present study was to determine the type, frequency, the reason why complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments are used, the factors related with their use, and the effects of CAM usage on long-term survival. Families of a total of 120 children with cancer between 0-18 years of age, including 50 (41.7%) girls and 70 (58.3%) boys, participated in our study. The authors found that 88 patients (73.3%) used at least one CAM method, the most common (95.5%) of which was biologically based therapies. Most frequently used biologically based therapies were dietary supplements and herbal products. The most commonly used dietary supplement or herbal product was honey (43.2%) or stinging nettle (43.2%), respectively. We found that patients used such CAM methods as complementary to, but not instead of, conventional therapy. Sixty-nine out of 88 patient families (78.4%) shared the CAM method they used with their physicians. No statistically significant relation was found between socioeconomic, sociodemographic, or other factors or items and CAM use. The mean follow-up period of the CAM users and nonusers groups was 79.4 ± 36.7 (21.3-217.9) and 90.9 ± 50.3 (27.4-193.7) months, respectively. Five-year survival rates for CAM users and nonusers were found as 81.5% and 86.5%, respectively (P > .05). In conclusion, families of children with cancer use complementary and alternative treatment frequently. They do not attempt to replace conventional treatment with CAM. Higher rates of CAM use was found in families with higher educational level. CAM usage did not affect the long-term survival.

We observed an increased incidence of chronic hepatitis and even mortality due to HBV infection. This suggests that HBV and HCV infections are serious causes of morbidity and mortality in children with cancer.