Abstract
Background: In Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs),
pediatric cancer represents a significant cause of death, with Leukemia
being the most common malignancy in children. Our purpose was to
describe AL profile in Senegal in the context of childhood cancer.
Procedure: All data about childhood cancer were registered in
Redcap software A global database for epidemiological history of all new
patient that visited the pediatric -oncology care center of Dakar and
eight other specifics databases for each main cancers had been created
(Acute Leukemias, Nephroblastomas, Retinoblastomas, Neuroblastomas,
Non-Hodgkin lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphomas, Rhabdomyosarcomas
…….). Results : From January 2
nd 2021 to September 30 th2022, the
overall number of childhood cancer cases was 357; which amounts to
approximatively 204 children with confirmed cancer per year. The most
common cancer found among children was Acute Leukemia (AL) which
represents about 30% of all cancers (97 patients). A median age of 60
month and a ratio of males to females diagnosed with AL equal to 1.22
were found. Complete Blood cell Count and examination performed found
that the main abnormality were hyperleukocytosis, with a mean number of
white blood cells of 67.7g/L. Microscopic examination showed a large
amount of blast cells that sometimes represented more than 90% of WBC.
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia was more frequent in Senegal (64% of AL).
During these 21 month of follow up, 18 patients (18,5%) relapse and 38
(39%)died at different steps of traitement. Conclusion : In
Senegal, Immunophenotyping significantly improve AL diagnosis. the
implementation of cytogenetics is currently underway.