PEDIATRIC TUMORS IN NORTH-WEST PAKISTAN AND AFGHAN REFUGEES

All patients referred to the Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Med icine in Peshawar (IRNUM) during 1990 to 1994 were analyzed. There wer e 1655 children with biopsy-proven cancers; 1290 were from the North W est Frontier Province (NWFP), and the remaining 365 were Afghan refuge es. Male children from the NWFP were 67% and females were 33%. Among A fghan children, 69% were males and 31% were females. Patients whose hi stopathologies were doubtful or not available were excluded from the s tudy. The most common tumors in children in the NWFP were lymphoid leu kemia, lymphoma, myeloid leukemia, Wilms tumor, tuners of the central nervous system (CNS), soft tissue sarcoma, bone tumors, retinoblastoma , neuroblastoma, and testicular tumors. Among Afghan children the most common cancers were lymphoma lymphoid leukemia, myeloid leukemia, Wil ms tumor, retinoblastoma, tumors of soft tissue, bone tumors, CNS tumo rs, testicular tumors, and neuroblastoma.