Histopathological patterns of childhood malignancies seen at Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria: A 10 year retrospective study

Introduction: Childhood malignancies (CM) have been one of the major causes of death in the world. It appears to be increasing in significance due to the ongoing reduction in both infectious and nutritional diseases.Aims: The study was conducted to document the histopathological pattern, age and sex distribution of childhood malignancies in a University Teaching Hospital in Southeast Nigeria.Method: The materials consisted of histology slides, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks (FPTB), and requisition forms of all cases diagnosed with CM at a University Teaching Hospital between the periods January 2005 and December 2015Results: A total of 2,528 surgical biopsies were received at the Department. Only 60 (2.4%) specimens represented childhood malignancies. Thirty-one cases (51.7%) of the entire CM were lymphomas; 12 (20.0%) were non-Hodgkin lymphoma, 17 (28.3%) others were Burkitt’s type whereas 2(3.3%) were Hodgkin lymphoma. Childhood malignancies were more in males 36 (60.0 %) than females 24 (40.0%), giving a male to female ratio of 3:2. However, Burkitt’s lymphoma was higher in females 12 (70.6%) than males 5 (29.4%) with a male to female ratio of 1.2:3. Twenty-six (43.3%) cases of the CM occurred in children aged 0-5 years but 20 (36.7%) presented in children aged 11 to 15 years. Twelve (20.0%) cases were seen in children 6 to 10 years. Six (23.1%) of the children had Burkitt's lymphoma all of whom were under 5 years.Conclusion: Lymphomas were the commonest CM, Burkitt’s lymphoma being the dominant subtype in this study. There was a female preponderance of Burkitt’s lymphoma.