Clinico-epidemiology of neuroblastoma in north east Egypt: A 5-year multicenter study

Abstract

Abstract. Neuroblastoma, an embryonal malignancy of the sympathetic nervous system, is the most frequent extracranial solid tumor The clinico-epidemiological features of neuroblastoma in infants and children were investigated between January 2005 and January 2010 at the Pediatric Oncology units of Mansoura, Zagazig, and Tanta University Children's Hospitals (Egypt). Of 142 cases of neuroblastoma, 10 were omitted from the study due to defective data. The median age of the patients was 30 months, with 75.8% aged ≥1 year and 24.2% aged <1 year at time of diagnosis. The male-to-female ratio was 1.06. Suprarenal glands were the most common primary tumor site (72.7%). The majority of the patients (76.7%) had stage IV disease. Favorable pathology was observed in 43.8% of patients, while 56.2% exhibited unfavorable pathology. The estimated survival rate of patients was 30.7±10.0%, and mean survival time was 24.2±5.2 months. The rate of mortality was 28.6% for patients aged <1 year, and 81.8% for those aged ≥1 year (P=0.005). For patients with favorable pathology, the rate of mortality was significantly lower (28.6%) compared with that of patients with unfavorable pathology (77.8%; P=0.049). Although the association between outcome and each of the primary tumor sites, children's oncology group risk and gender was statistically insignificant, a large effect size was identified between outcome and primary tumor site, as well as children's oncology group risk and a medium effect size was identified between outcome and gender. Additionally, an age of ≥1 year was associated with unfavorable pathology (P=0.024), stage IV disease (P= 0.026) and a suprarenal primary tumor site (P=0.001).

Neuroblastoma among children in Southern and Eastern European cancer registries: Variations in incidence and temporal trends compared to US

“…The overall AIR we calculated for SEE (10.1) is comparable to the respective rate (10.9) reported in another European study including 59 registries in 19 countries participating in the Automated Childhood Cancer Information System (1978–1997) and ranging from 9 in the British Isles to 12 in Western‐Southern Europe, but higher than those reported for the well‐controlled health care systems of the Nordic countries (Denmark: 8.6, 1981–2000; Sweden: 7, 1983–2010) . However, much lower rates are reported in the less affluent African, Southern‐Eastern Asian and Southern American countries …”

“…4,27 However, much lower rates are reported in the less affluent African, Southern-Eastern Asian and Southern American countries. 1,2,[28][29][30][31] The association of higher incidence rates of neuroblastoma with higher HDI in our study was restricted to cases diagnosed before the age of 5 years, when most of the cases are diagnosed. The differences by socioeconomic status have been traditionally attributed to the availability of modern imaging technology, provision of health care services and quality of cancer registration.…”

Seasonal trends of diagnosis of childhood malignant diseases and viral prevalence in South Korea

“…Recently, an Italian neuroblastoma cohort study reported that stage 4S NBL had a significant peak among July births; however no trend in the date of diagnosis was found [17]. In the present study, we could not classify the patients' stages; however, stage 4S NBL accounts for less than 5% of all NBL cases, so our seasonal NBL pattern is surely different from that reported in the Italian study [18]. With regards to AML, while ALL and AML are biologically different diseases with distinct etiologies [19], it is possible that different infectious agents play a role in the development of both.…”

Overall survival for neuroblastoma in South Africa between 2000 and 2014

“…This study represented the first documented multicenter retrospective cohort study of NB in sub‐Saharan Africa. Although the majority of cases were diagnosed in the 18‐ to 60‐month age group, similar to international trends, the median age was higher at 39.9 months compared with 19 months in the United States (HIC) or 33.2 months in Egypt (MIC) …”