FATORES RELACIONADOS AO DIAGNÓSTICO TARDIO DO CÂNCER INFANTO-JUVENIL

• Autor(a) principal: Ries, Paula Kieling
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional Universidade Franciscana
• Texto Completo: http://www.tede.universidadefranciscana.edu.br:8080/handle/UFN-BDTD/625
• topic: infantil, câncer, diagnóstico, tardio; childhood, cancer, diagnosis, delay; Saúde Materno Infantil

Childhood and adolescent cancer is a group of malignant diseases with a multifactorial origin that, despite the low incidence and despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, remains the second cause of infant mortality in developed countries aged from one to 14 years. Currently, early diagnosis is considered the best policy for improving prognosis and reducing treatment intensity. Knowing the factors related to the late diagnosis allows establishing strategies for early diagnosis of cancer in childhood and adolescence. Few studies related to this topic have been carried out in developing countries. Objectives: Report clinical and epidemiological data on cases of childhood and juvenile cancer, know the factors related to the late diagnosis of pediatric tumors; measure the intervals of the initial clinical presentation at diagnosis and treatment and correlate these intervals with larger clinical outcomes. Methods: A retrospective cohort study in which clinical and epidemiological data were collected from 198 patients aged zero to 18 years old, attended at a referral center in a public hospital in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul from January 2008 to December 2015. Results: Of the 198 patients, 56.1% were male, the age group with the highest frequency of diagnosis was from zero to four years. The most frequent diagnosis was leukemia, followed by lymphoma. Most of them, that is, 94.6% of the patients presented specific symptoms of the neoplasia, and yet 67.2% of the cases of solid tumors presented with locally invasive or metastatic disease. The median time for the diagnosis of 31 days, the delay of the parents was of 12 days and the one of the doctors was of six days. Tumor type was the only factor with relevance that interfered in time for the diagnosis (p <0.01). Event-free survival and overall 5-year survival were 73.6% and 80.9%, respectively. When comparing the survival curves for patients with late and non-late diagnosis, there was no significant difference (log-rank = 0.604). Conclusion: The time for diagnosis of childhood and juvenile neoplasms is among the lowest published. The results may reflect the parents difficulty in recognizing the signs and symptoms of childhood neoplasms, since the parents delay in seeking care is superior to that of the physicians in the oncologist. Corroborating, the great majority of patients have specific symptoms at diagnosis and yet they present with advanced disease, indicating the need for educational campaigns, familiarizing the population with the signs and symptoms of neoplasms.