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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2011; 32(01): 30-33
DOI: 10.4103/0971-5851.81887
ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Childhood cancer in developing society: A roadmap of health care

P M Ramesh
Department of Pediatrics, Govt. TD Medical College, Alappuzha, Kerala, India
,
R K Marwaha
Department of Pediatrics, Hematology Oncology Division, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India
,
T S Anish
Department of Community Medicine, GMC, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
› Author Affiliations Source of Support Nil.
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Abstract

Background: We assessed referral patterns of children with hematological malignancies (HM) in North India. Materials and Methods: The parents/guardians were interviewed at presentation, in the period between October 2001 and November 2002. Patient delay (symptom-contact), health system delay (contact-diagnosis), total delay (symptom-diagnosis), and number of contacts were compared between high- and standard-risk disease group. Results: Of the 79 children (55 boys; 69.6%) with HM, 47 (59.5%) had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Forty-four children had high-risk disease. The patient, system and total delay were a median of 2 days (with Interquartile range IQR of 1−6), 37 days (IQR 13−55), and 38 days (IQR 15−60) respectively. Majority of patients (64/79; 81%) went to private sector (non governmental health care providers) for health care. Number of contacts, which was the most significant, correlate with system delay. Conclusions: Sensitizing the private sector practitioners about cancer in symptomatic children (pallor, bleeding, fever) may be effective.

Keywords

Childhood cancer - epidemiology - patient delay - referral delay


Publication History

Article published online:
16 August 2021

© 2011. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

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