TUMORS OF CHILDHOOD IN IBADAN, NIGERIA (1973-1990)

Childhood neoplasms provide a fertile field for epidemiological resear ch and afford a unique opportunity for studying possible mechanism of carcinogenesis. The present study reviews 1881 malignant childhood neo plasms in children less than 15 pears of age seen in the University Co llege Hospital, Ibadan during an 18-year period. The male-to-female ra tio was 1.4:1 and modal age of occurrence was 10 years. The most commo n childhood neoplasms were lymphomas (45.4%), retinoblastomes (9.7%), and malignant renal neoplasms (8.5%). Burkitt's lymphoma constituted 9 2% of all lymphomas and 37% of all childhood tumors. Comparison of two clinicopathological studies of childhood cancer in Ibadan between 196 0-1972 and 1973-1990 revealed a dramatic upsurge in the relative frequ encies of intracranial neoplasms, leukemias, renal neoplasms, and reti noblastomas, with a decline in the relative frequencies of bone neopla sms and Burkitt's lymphoma during the latter period. Whether these cha nges reflect actual changes in the distribution of childhood cancer in the local population will require further study.