Neuroblastoma survival in South African children is more influenced by biological than socioeconomic factors

SA Journal of Oncology

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Neuroblastoma survival in South African children is more influenced by biological than socioeconomic factors
 
Creator Charlton, Robyn Ngcana, Thandeka Geel, Jennifer
 
Subject Paediatrics; Oncology neuroblastoma; prognosis; survival; socioeconomic factors; distance
Description Background: Optimal management of neuroblastoma depends on accurate risk stratification at diagnosis. Many low- and middle-income countries lack access to specific genetic tests used globally for this purpose.Aim: To determine whether socioeconomic factors predict prognosis in neuroblastoma and could therefore provide alternative measures for risk stratification in resource-constrained settings.Setting: The three main paediatric oncology units in Johannesburg, South Africa: Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital and Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre.Methods: This retrospective record review included 145 patients presenting with biopsy-proven neuroblastoma between 01 January 2000 and 31 December 2018. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was performed in relation to biological and socioeconomic factors, the latter including parental employment status, nationality, and distance of residence from treating facility. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis assessed the significance and effect of these prognostic factors.Results: Factors with significant effect on survival were age below 18 months (p  0.0001), extra-abdominal primary tumour site (p = 0.02), lower stage (p  0.001), serum ferritin level 0.0001) and favourable International Neuroblastoma Pathological Committee histology (p  0.0001), race (p = 0.005), nationality (p = 0.05) and paternal employment (p = 0.02). The association between distance from treating facility and stage at diagnosis was not significant (Tb = 0.108, p = 0.06).Conclusion: Biological factors exert a great influence on neuroblastoma survival than the socioeconomic factors analysed. This suggests that tumour biology exerts an overriding influence on prognosis in neuroblastoma. 
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-12-12
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — retrospective record review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajo.v6i0.244
 
Source South African Journal of Oncology; Vol 6 (2022); 9 pages 2523-0646 2518-8704
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/244/699 https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/244/700 https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/244/701 https://sajo.org.za/index.php/sajo/article/view/244/702
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; Gauteng; Johannesburg January 2000 - December 2018 age 0-18, male and female, children with neuroblastoma
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Robyn Charlton, Thandeka Ngcana, Jennifer Geel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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