ESTRO 2021 Abstract Book

S1179

ESTRO 2021

group 0–14 years, registered from March 2019 to September 2020 were analyzed for demographic and clinic- pathological details. Descriptive statistics was done using SPSS software, version 23.0 Results

A total of 230 histologically proven paediatric cancer patients were registered and received radiotherapy in the department of radiotherapy and oncology during above mentioned period. The median age at presentation was 6 years with a male to female ratio of 1.8:1. Majority of the patients were from North India, mostly from Punjab (38.7%) and Haryana (17%). Combining all age groups together, central nervous system (CNS) malignancies were the most common (n=103, 38.15%), followed by bone and soft tissue tumours (n=57, 24.7%), renal tumors (n=24, 8.89%), neuroblastoma (n=19, 8.3%), Retinoblastoma (n=19, 8.3%), haemato-lymphoid malignancies (n=6, 2.6%) and others (Chordoma and Mucoepidermoid carcinoma). Medulloblastoma and Ewing sarcoma was the commonest histology among CNS and non CNS malignancies respectively (each in 31 patients, 13.5%). The incidence of each of these malignancies has been discussed in Table 1. On studying the age wise distribution, it was noted that children in the 0-4 years age group were the most commonly affected (n=94, 40.9%). Table 2 is showing age and gender wise distribution of all paediatric cancer patients. Majority of the patients received RT by three dimensional conformal radiotherapy technique. Children less than three years of the age or those who did not cooperate during RT received anaesthesia.

Conclusion Although paediatric cancers are rare, they share a significant burden of all cancer patients. Radiation therapy in children is very challenging due to the potential hazards of side effects such as neurocognitive impairment, endocrine toxicities, fertility issues, and chance of secondary malignancies. Assessment of paediatric cancer burden in radiotherapy department may help in resource development and prioritisation. We attempted to