Childhood malignancies in an Ethiopian teaching hospital.

A retrospective study for the ten year period 1981 to 1990 was done to determine the pattern of childhood malignant diseases in the Paediatrics Department of the Gonder College of Medical Sciences, Gonder, Ethiopia. The 71 children identified represented 0.66% of the total paediatric admissions. Ages ranged between 4 months and 14 years with the male to female ratio 3.4:1. Lymphoma was the commonest tumour (25.4%) followed by bone and soft tissue sarcomas (19.7%) and retinoblastoma (15.5%). Leukaemia accounted for 11.3% of the cases. The findings are compared with those from other countries.