Clinical Profile And Treatment Outcomes Of Retinoblastoma Experience From A Low-Income Country
Original Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69830/jbkmc.v5i02.175Abstract
Background: Retinoblastoma (RB) is the most common intraocular malignancy in children representing 3% of all pediatric malignancies. Retinoblastoma affects very young children: two-thirds of the cases are diagnosed before 2 years of age and more than 90% before 5 years.
Objectives:To assess the demographic, clinical, and histopathological characteristics of pediatric retinoblastoma patients and to evaluate the association of age with disease presentation and tumor features.
Study Design and Setting : This retrospective descriptive study was conducted at the Paediatric Oncology Department of Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Rawalpindi, Pakistan, encompassing medical records from November 1, 2016, to February 29, 2024.
Material and Methods: This Study was conducted retrospectively at the Paediatric Oncology Department of Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Rawalpindi, Pakistan. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 25.0 (released 2017, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used for statistical analysis. The descriptive analysis calculated frequencies and percentages for categorical variables, and the median (IQR) was for continuous variables. The chi-square test was used to associate age with RB characteristics in univariate analysis. P- values of <0.05 were considered significant.
Results: 96 patients admitted to the pediatric oncology department of CMH Rawalpindi were included in the study. The median age at presentation was 24 months. The most common presenting symptom was leukocoria in 67(69.8%), strabismus in 9 (9.4%), vision loss in 11 (11.5%), and proptosis in 9(9.4%). Extraocular disease was present in 24(25%). The grouping of Intraocular disease based on IIRC showed stage E as predominant with n=80(84%). Metastatic disease was present in 18(18.8%). Enucleation was done in 73(76.0%). With a median follow-up of 71 months, 19 patients died. Kaplan Meier's Survival showed an Overall survival of 83%.
Conclusion: Raising awareness and implementing screening for retinoblastoma are essential for diagnosing the disease at an intraocular stage, which can significantly improve survival rates in developing countries.
