Clinical and histopathological studies on tumors of infancy and childhood among Koreans

의학과/석사[한글] [영문] It has long been known that childhood tumors differ as a group from those of adult life in several aspects(Anderson, 1951;Lee, 1967). In recent years, the declining deathrate from preventable disease and from infections susceptible to antibiotics has led to a relative increase in the number of death from neoplastic disease, especially malignant tumors in childhood. Malignant disease is the most common cause of death in children second only to the accident between the ages of 1 and 15 years (Michael, 1964), and there are many reports that childhood cancers have been increased in number(Handy, 1963;Hong & Kim, 1972;Lee, 1974). With increasing of childhood cancers, they have aroused new interest in the etiology and pathogenesis of the cancer. Malignant tumors in children occur with sufficient frequency so that the diagnosis must always be kept in mind in dealing with sick youngsters and early diagnosis and proper treatment would be helpful in the management of childhood cancer patients as in adults(Handy, 1963; Lee, 1967). Childhood tumors have geographic and racial difference in their occurrence and clinical and histopathologic features. The present study is an attempt to investigate the nature and characteristics of pediatric tumors among Koreans. Masterials and Methods The masterials used in this study consist of 784 cases of pediatric patients who were aged between 1 and 15 years and were diagnosed as the tumor, benign or malignant for 14 years from 1960 to 1973. All specimens were fixed in 10% neutral formalin, paraffin embedded blocks were cut in 5 micron thickness, and sections were stained by hematoxylin-eosin methods. For all cases whose clinical records were available, sex, age, chief complaints, duration of disease and other data were reviewed. Results and Summary 1. Among 784 cases of pediatric tumors, malignant tumors were 332 cases(42.3%) and benign, 452 cases(57.7%). 2. Males were predominant in malignant tumors as male to female ratio, 1.8:1 and there were no significant sexual difference in benign tumors. 3. Malignant tumors were more frequent in the age group before 7 years but the benign showed no significant difference in the age frequency. 4. The most common tumor of pediatric patients were leukemia which was also the most frequent one in malignant tumors of childhood(35.5% of malignant tumors). 5. The most common benign tumor was hemangioma(17.5% of benign tumors). 6. Most of the leukemia was acute form, and acute lymphocytic and acute myelocytic type were the most common types which were 30.5 per cent each. In conclusion based on these findings, it can be stated that most of pediatric malignant tumors are sarcomas in contrast to the adult malignancies which are mostly carcinomas and the most common malignant tumor or childhood in Korea is leukemia.restrictio