Demographic features of neuroblastoma in Iraq-Kurdistan Region- Sulaimani

BACKGROUND: Neuroblastoma is the third most common cancer in pediatric age group; it is the most common malignancy in the 1st year of life. The majority of the patients (50%u65%) have advanced disease at diagnosis. Diagnoses, staging investigations, and risk categorization have a great success in neuroblastoma, trying to classify the patient into risk groups according to the age, stage, and molecular study and this in turn has important value in the treatment strategies. Despite of this improvement in the early diagnosis and treatment protocol, neuroblastoma stills is one of the malignant diseases that are associated with high morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to evaluate the pattern of presentation, studying the correlation between age, sex, and site of primary tumor with disease staging in patients with neuroblastoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study was done prospectively over a period of 6 years from February 2008 to February 2014. Sixty-two patients with newly diagnosed pediatric neuroblastoma admitted to Hiwa Hematology/Oncology hospital were included in this study. Age, sex, clinical patterns, staging, and important laboratory findings were assessed. The patients staged according to the International Neuroblastoma Staging System. We divided our patients into three groups according to the risk categories. RESULTS: Data analyzed using SPSS- 13 and P value obtained by Chi-square test, a median age at diagnosis was about 24 months with male predominance. Most common site of the primary tumor was the abdomen; approximately 69% of our patients with neuroblastoma studied were Stage 4. CONCLUSION: The stage in our study was age dependent, but it was neither depending on the sex nor the site of the primary tumor.