Tumors of childhood in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Childhood cancer is fast becoming an important pediatric problem in several parts of Africa, with the progressive decline of infectious and nutritional diseases. The present study analyzes 1325 Nigerian children with neoplasms diagnosed over a 13-year period (1960-1972). It accounted for 12.5% of all tumors registered in our Cancer Registery over the period of study. The commonest type of malignant tumor in the Nigerian child was solid lymphoma, of which Burkitt's tumor predominated. The overall pattern of tumors in these children was strikingly different in certain aspects from what obtains in the Caucasian child. When four main groups of tumors were considered, the ratio frequency pattern in Nigerian children was one of high lymphoma, high orbital, low leukemia, low glioma type. In the Caucasian child, the ratio frequency pattern is usually one of high leukemia, high glioma, low lymphoma, low orbital type. The observed differences in frequencies of childhood tumors between population groups require further studies.