GCF Chan, SY Ha, KL Chan, TL Lee, W Cheng, KN Hung, YW Fan, PKH Tam, YL Lau

Abstract

The spectrum and clinical aspects of malignant neoplastic diseases diagnosed in the infancy period are quite distinct from those found in older children. However, there are very few published data focusing on this particular group of patients. We performed a retrospective study on our paediatric cancer patients in order to review the spectrum and clinical aspects of infant malignant diseases. A total of 40 infants with various malignant neoplastic illnesses and Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) were diagnosed in our unit within a 10 years period (Jan 89 to Dec 98). It accounts for 13.5% (40/296) of the total paediatric oncology patients diagnosed within the same time span. Blastoma is the most common group of illnesses (n=19) in the infancy period, followed by leukaemia (n=8) and brain tumour (n=7). Malignant blastoma in the infancy period appears to have good outcome. But infants with acute leukaemia and brain tumour had poorer prognosis as compared to older children with the same diseases. Even within the same disease category, the biological behaviour of infant neoplasms appears to be different from that of the older children.