Original article
English
Nourz A. Gheriani
AL-Fatah children Hospital, Benghazi- Libyan
JMJ Vol. 2, No. 2 (September 2002): 68-70
Abstract
A retrospective study of childhood cancer mortality was conducted in AL-Fatah Children Hospital, Benghazi, from 1st of October 1997 through 30th of September 2001. During this period a total of 176 incident cases of childhood cancer were admitted, of which 73 died, estimating a cancer fatality rate of 41.5%. The observed proportional mortality was highest due to leukaemia (36.9%). Nearly half of the mortality (50.6%) was in the age group 1-5 years. Male preponderance was observed (58.9%) with male: female ratio of 1.43:1. Almost two thirds (64.4%) of patients died within first six months of diagnosis. Among the immediate causes of death infection was found to be the most common cause of death (31.51%), followed by renal and hepatic failure (2.74%) each and bleeding (1.37%). Survival of those patients who were with standard risk and sought the medical advice early (9.6%) but died due to infection, hepatic failure, renal failure, and bleeding during case- management, could have been increased by prevention, early detection of theses immediate causes of death and improvement of case management which are the cornerstone for reducing the magnitude of cancer mortality and its subsequent impact.
Keywords: Cancer mortality, leukaemia, childhood cancer mortality, immediate causes of death, impact of mortality
Link/DOI: http://www.jmj.org.ly/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1245