CASES of paediatric cancer rose marginally in 2018, accounting for close to 4 percent of all cancers recorded in the country that year, a new report from the Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry (ZNCR) has revealed.
The report, whose release was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, also points to rising incidence of blood cancer among boys under the age of 14.
Overall, the number of cancer patients in the country rose by 4 percent, with 7 841 new cases of the disease being recorded in 2018.
During the same year, 293 paediatric cancers were recorded, up from 253 the previous year.
Leukaemia, a blood cancer, was the most common ailment among young children under 14 years.
“A total of 293 paediatric cancers (age 0-14) of all races were registered in 2018,” reads the report.
“These comprised 176 (60 percent) boys and 117 (40 percent) girls.
“Paediatric cancers accounted for 3,7 percent of all the cancers recorded in 2018.
“Other unspecified malignant tumours accounted for 9 percent of childhood cancers.”
The total number of new cancer cases recorded among Zimbabweans of all races, according to the report, stood at 7 841, comprising 3 301 (42,1 percent) males and 4 540 (57,9 percent) females.
At least 2 677 malignant tumours, consisting of 1 193 (44,6 percent) males and 1 484 (55,4 percent) females, were registered in Harare; while 1 072, comprising 485 (45,2 percent) men and 587 (54,8 percent) women, were reported in Bulawayo.
“The most frequently occurring cancers among Zimbabweans of all races in 2018 were cervix uteri/cervical cancer (21 percent), prostate (11 percent), breast (8 percent), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) (5 percent), oesophagus (4 percent), Kaposi sarcoma (KS) (4 percent), colorectal (4 percent), stomach (3 percent) and liver (3 percent).
“The other cancers accounted for 37 percent of the registered malignancies.”
The report findings also reveal that the leading cancers among Zimbabwean black men in 2018 were prostate cancer (27,9 percent), followed by NHL (8,2 percent), KS (7,2 percent), oesophagus (6,3 percent) and liver (5,3 percent).
“In Zimbabwean black women, the most frequent cancers were cervical cancer (39,2 percent), breast (12,5 percent), oesophagus (3,8 percent), NHL (3,5 percent) stomach (3,3 percent), ovary (2,4 percent), eye (2,3 percent), KS (2,2 percent), liver (2,1 percent) and corpus uteri (2,0 percent).”
The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates that every year, 162 000 children under the age of 14 are diagnosed with cancer worldwide, and of these, 94 000 are boys and 68 000 are girls.
Four boys are diagnosed with cancer for every three girls.
Paediatric oncologist Dr Auxillia Madambi said: “A child that has survived cancer and gone through radiation therapy or chemotherapy can be predisposed to leukaemia later. But there is nothing specific that has been pinpointed.”
She said childhood leukaemia was treatable, noting that medication to treat and manage the disease was, however, not readily available in the country.
Commenting on the report, ZNCR medical director Professor Margaret Borok said: “There were challenges with publication of the report mainly due to Covid-19-induced restrictions.
“The outreach programme which started in 2018 and aimed at extending the operations of the ZNCR to the provinces in order to improve national coverage was completed in 2019.
“The exercise resulted in the accumulation of data to be entered and a data processing backlog as staff were away from the offices for prolonged periods.
“Then came the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the national lockdowns imposed by Government to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.
“This resulted in unavoidable scaling down of registry operations, which very much contributed to the delay in the publication of the report.” – Sunday Mail
