Trend of childhood cancers in Iraq after the two Gulf wars

Abstract EN

Objectives : This study was conducted to find out the rates of childhood malignancies in Baghdad hospitals, and to study the changes in the trend of these diseases in three periods of time after the first and the second Gulf war. Methods: This hospital-based record study was conducted during the period from February through June 2007 in the two main centers of childhood oncology in Baghdad; Children Welfare Teaching Hospital, and Child’s Central Teaching Hospital.

All the records of patients (age between 0-15 years and diagnosed as having malignant diseases during the following three periods) were included.

The first period includes the years (1990, 1991), the second period (1997, 1998), and the third period includes the years (2004, 2005). Results: The total sample was 2013 patients; 1172 males and 841 females; 462 patients were diagnosed in the first period, 688 in the second and 863 patients in the third period.

The study showed a slight increase in the rate of childhood malignancies over the three periods (3.46, 3.52, and 4.04)/100000/ year respectively.

There was an increase in the number of cases in all age groups especially patient’s age less than 5 years.

The male: female ratio was 1.4:1 with no significant change through the 3 periods.

Leukemia was the most common childhood malignancy followed by lymphoma and solid tumors (1202, 421, and 332) patients respectively.

The majority of patients live in the middle region of Iraq with the highest frequency from Baghdad.

There is an increase in the survival percentage (9.9%, 25.5%, and 32.4%) and decrease in fatality percentage over the three periods (41.3%, 32.4%, and 27.9%) respectively. Conclusions: There is an increase in the rate of childhood cancer in Iraq during the studied period, with no detectable changes in the trend regarding the type, and geographical distribution.