Abstract

CARPIO-DEHEZA, Gonzalo; LAFUENTE-RIVEROLA, Víctor Hugo  and  SALAS-MENDOZA, Beatriz Tatiana. CLINICAL AND EPIDEMIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENTATIONAND DIAGNOSIS OF PEDIATRIC CANCER IN COCHABAMBA, MULTIINSTITUTIONAL STUDY IN THE PEDIATRIC HOSPITALS: HNMAV AND CPAP. Rev. Méd.-Cient. Luz Vida [online]. 2011, vol.2, n.1, pp. 34-38. ISSN 2219-8032.

Background: Childhood cancer is one of the leading causes of death by disease as from the first year of life. Each year new cases of childhood cancer are reported in children between 0 to 15 years old. The Signs and symptoms that precede cancer are common to other diseases. This leads to their sub-diagnosis. Therefore the diagnosis is made accidentally and often in advanced stages even with metastatic disease. Objective: It is to determine the incidence of pediatric cancer in Cochabamba, and to identify the time that takes the inpatient diagnosis of pediatric neoplasm, presented at: Hospital del Niño Manuel Ascencio Villarroel (HNMAV) and Centro Pediatrico Albina Patiño (CPAP) during 2005 to 2010. Methods: It is a descriptive, retrospective, and cross-sectional research. The sample studied was limited to patients admitted during 2005-2010 in HNMAV and CPAP, with the diagnosis of pediatric cancer. Results: According to sex, it was found further in men (56%) and the most common age of diagnosis was 2 to 5 years old which represents the 38,67%. Among the most frequent type of cancer were found: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (62%), Retinoblastoma (8,49%) and Hodgkin lymphoma (4,71%). Conclusion: In the population studied, the Pediatric Cancer incidence is 0,44% the results for elapsed time until the inpatient diagnosis of pediatric neoplasm were: there was a significant variance in the comparison between the two principal hospitals in Cochabamba: Public (HNMAV) versus Private (CPAP), being (CPAP) which gave more precocity in this diagnosis.

Keywords : Pediatric cancer; Presentation and Diagnosis; Cochabamba.