Estudo epidemiológico de pacientes pediátricos portadores de tumor do sistema nervoso central matriculados no Instituto de Oncologia Pediátrica

• Ano de defesa: 2010
• Autor(a) principal: Pinho, Ricardo Silva [UNIFESP]
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)
• Palavras-chave em Português: Criança; Epidemiologia; Tumor do sistema nervoso central; Tumor na infância; Tumor cerebral; Neoplasias encefálicas; Epidemiology; Brain neoplasms; Child
• Link de acesso: http://repositorio.unifesp.br/handle/11600/9583

Purpose: Central nervous system (CNS) tumors comprise the most frequent group of solid malignant tumors in pediatric patients, representing approximately 20% of all tumors in children under the age of 15. The objective of this study was to determine the epidemiology of primary tumors of the CNS in pediatric patients from a Brazilian oncology institute. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 741 charts (415 males and 326 females) from patients under 21 years of age who were diagnosed with a CNS tumor. The analysis included patients from 1989 to 2009 and was completed using the World Health Organization criteria. We evaluated the distribution of age, gender, topography, clinical symptoms, symptom intervals and classification of the tumors. Patients with clinical/radiological diagnoses were included. Results: Seven hundred and forty-one patients with tumors in the CNS were reviewed, and 75% of the patients presented a histological diagnosis. Males (56%) were more prevalent than females. In children under the age of three, the supratentorial compartment was the predominant region involved (51,3%). Astrocytoma was the most frequent tumor type (39,9%), followed by medulloblastoma (14,0%), craniopharyngioma (10,4%) and ependymoma (6,9%). Headaches were the most common symptom, and the symptom intervals varied from 1 to 5.010 days. Approximately 4% of the patients had associated genetic syndromes. Conclusions: The authors analyzed a group of pediatric patients with CNS tumors in a Brazilian referral hospital. Although this was not a population study and selection bias may have occurred, our data may be representative of the Brazilian population.