Background and aim: The establishment of an international hospital‐based register (HBR) for the French African Pediatric Oncology Group (GFAOP) was a necessary step in the group's clinical research program. With help from the Sanofi Espoir Foundation's “My Child Matters” program, the GFAOP resolved to develop an international HBR network to collect quality data on children attending the Pediatric Oncology Units (POUs). Methods: All children entering POUs from January 2016 to December 2018 were registered using an online questionnaire. Data collection included information on diagnosis, disease stage, demographics, socioeconomic status, and outcome. An intensive training program was developed to improve both data quality and quantity. Results: Among the 3348 children registered, 3230 had a suspected cancer, 681 were not confirmed. A diagnosis was confirmed on radiological, clinical, or histological examination for 2549 children including Burkitt lymphoma (516: 20%)—the most frequent diagnosis, Wilms’ tumor (459: 18%), retinoblastoma (357: 14%), and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (345: 13%). Of these, 2187 children were treated. Early deaths, abandonment, economic difficulties, and lack of equipment were some of the reasons offered to explain the numbers of undiagnosed and untreated children. Vital status is known for 1994 children: 1187 died and 807 were alive, 551 of these with a follow‐up > 12 months. Conclusion: This work has provided reliable data on children attending the POUs, especially clarifying reasons and occasions for care rupture. The data will help to identify material, human resources, and staff training needs, to evaluate progress, and to encourage consideration of pediatric cancer in national cancer plans.

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This open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0. Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a B-cell line lymphoma, characterised histologically by the presence of large, atypical cells called Reed-Sternberg cells. The first histological description dates back to 1832 by Thomas Hodgkin. [1] Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an important factor in the pathogenesis of HL and it is detected in Reed-Sternberg cells in the vast majority of HL specimens from developing countries, but much less frequently in high-income countries. [2] The incidence of HL is 1.2 per 100 000 children and represents the most common malignant tumour in adolescents in high-income countries, and the majority of cases are diagnosed at an early stage of disease. [3] Hodgkin's disease is more common in children under 10 years of age in developing countries. HL is a malignant but highly curable tumour and its treatment is one of the success stories of modern medicine. The use of chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy has greatly improved the survival rate of advanced stages of the disease. In high-income countries, the event-free survival and overall survival rates are 85% and 90%, respectively. [4,5] The reported results of therapy of HL in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) are not as good, due to several factors. [6,7] One of the key reasons is that radiation therapy centres in sub-Saharan Africa are rare, but efforts are underway to address this issue. [8,9] Studies from one institution using chemotherapy alone in the treatment of HL have shown encouraging results. [10,11] This therapeutic strategy has been adopted by the French-African Paediatric Oncology Group (GFAOP) to improve the treatment of children with HL in sub-Saharan Africa. In this article, we present the results of a prospective, collaborative, multicentre study on the management of HL using only chemotherapy in GFAOP institutions. Methods This was a prospective, multicentre study aimed at evaluating the feasibility of using only COPP/ABV hybrid chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone, adriamycin, bleomycin and vinblastine) in treating children diagnosed Background. Childhood Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is typically treated by chemo-and radiotherapy, depending on the stage of the disease. Studies on the treatment of HL by chemotherapy alone have shown encouraging results. Objective. To evaluate the feasibility, epidemiological and therapeutic aspects of paediatric HL treated with only COPP/ABV hybrid chemotherapy (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, prednisone, adriamycin, bleomycin and vinblastine). Methods. This was a prospective multicentre study on the management of HL in paediatric oncology centres of the French-African Paediatric Oncology Group in sub-Saharan Africa, from 1 October 2006 to 30 November 2012. To be included in the study, patients had to be younger than 18 years at diagnosis, with histologically proven HL. Results. A total of 106 patients were included, with a median age of 10 years (range: 2-18 years). The s...

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