Paediatric Cancer Care in Abakaliki South-East Nigeria: Challenges and Outcome

The care of children with malignancy is almost always a feat and is even more difficult in resource-poor settings such as our country Nigeria where several factors present as challenges as seen in other countries of sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we present our experience in AEFUTHA, over a six-year period. This study aimed at finding out the current prevalence, outcomes and challenging issues leading to poor outcomes. This retrospective study spanned from January 2012 to December 2017. Information was extracted from the patients' case notes using a structured data proforma. Children aged 17 years and below who satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria were studied and the sample size was 68. In our study, the prevalence of paediatric malignancy is 2.0%. The outcome was generally poor with a mortality rate of 30.9%, and 60.3% having abandoned treatment at various stages of management. The top-ranking challenges noted included diagnostic problems and late presentation accounting for 19.8% and 17.3% respectively and, poverty and lack of effective treatment and drugs representing 16.0% each. We conclude that there is a need to adopt a multifaceted approach to tackling these challenges to improve outcomes.