Association of Modifiable Health Conditions and Social Determinants of Health With Late Mortality in Survivors of Childhood Cancer.

Importance: Associations between modifiable chronic health conditions (CHCs), social determinants of health, and late mortality (defined as death occurring ≥5 years after diagnosis) in childhood cancer survivors are unknown.

Objective: To explore associations between modifiable CHCs and late mortality within the context of social determinants of health.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This longitudinal cohort study used data from 9440 individuals who were eligible to participate in the St Jude Lifetime Cohort (SJLIFE), a retrospective cohort study with prospective clinical follow-up that was initiated in 2007 to characterize outcomes among childhood cancer survivors.

Infection Prevention and Control Measures at the Children Hospital Lahore: A My Child Matters Collaborative Project.

Purpose: Infection prevention among children with cancer is a major challenge at Children Hospital Lahore (CHL), a public health care facility in Pakistan with 1,000 new pediatric cancer admissions annually. The objective has been to reduce infections through collaboration between CHL and the St Jude Children's Hospital Global Infectious Disease program via a grant by the Sanofi Espoir foundation through the My Child Matters program. The aim of the current study was to describe the effect of the collaborative improvement strategy on existing infection prevention and control (IPC) standards at CHL.

A case of Guillain-Barre syndrome with pregnancy who delivered in ICU: a rare outcome of rare co-occurrence.

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in pregnancy is a rare co-occurrence and it is generally accepted that it carries a high maternal risk. We report a 40-year-old housewife who developed GBS with respiratory failure during the third trimester (31 weeks of gestation). She had preterm vaginal delivery on ventilator support at 34 weeks of gestation in neurology intensive care unit.

Implementing a Childhood Cancer Outcomes Surveillance System Within a Population-Based Cancer Registry.

Purpose: Approximately 80% of cases of childhood cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries and are associated with high mortality rates. Assessing outcomes is essential for designing effective strategies to improve outcomes equally worldwide. We implemented a real-time surveillance system, VIGICANCER, embedded in a population-based cancer registry (PBCR) to assess childhood cancer outcomes.

The My Child Matters programme: effect of public-private partnerships on paediatric cancer care in low-income and middle-income countries.

In low-income and middle-income countries, an excess in treatment failure for children with cancer usually results from misdiagnosis, inadequate access to treatment, death from toxicity, treatment abandonment, and relapse. The My Child Matters programme of the Sanofi Espoir Foundation has funded 55 paediatric cancer projects in low-income and middle-income countries over 10 years. We assessed the impact of the projects in these regions by using baseline assessments that were done in 2006.

Management of Concurrent Pregnancy and Acute Lymphoblastic Malignancy in Teenaged Patients: Two Illustrative Cases and Review of the Literature.

The usual age range of acute lymphoblastic malignancies (acute lymphoblastic leukemia and advanced-stage lymphoblastic lymphoma) includes teenagers and young adults (<22 years of age) and coincides with the age of fertility. Concurrence of acute lymphoblastic malignancy with pregnancy is therefore most likely to happen during the younger childbearing ages. However, the therapeutic challenges posed by the dual diagnosis of lymphoblastic malignancy and pregnancy have not specifically been studied in the context of age, and management guidelines for pregnant young patients are lacking.

Death analysis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia; experience at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Pakistan.

Objectives: To analyze the common causes of death in childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) patients during therapy at Paediatric Oncology Department of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital.

Methods: Retrospective descriptive study conducted at Paediatric Oncology department at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore Pakistan. All registered cases of ALL from 12 months to 18 years of age who expired between May 2001 to December 2005 were included.

Clinical characteristics and outcome analysis of pediatric B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Experience with FAB-LMB 96 and UKCCSG B-cell NHL guidelines in a developing country.

Aim: To analyze the clinical characteristics of B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) patients and the therapeutic efficacy of French-American-British Lymphoma Malins de Burkitt 96 and the recent United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group B-cell NHL guidelines in the tertiary care hospital of a developing country.

Methods: Patients aged < or =18 years registered at our hospital between January 1995 and December 2006 with histologically proved B-Cell NHL were selected for retrospective analysis.

Results: Of the total of 131 patients registered, 122 patients were eligible for evaluation.

Granulocytic sarcoma of the small intestine: an unusual presentation of acute myelogenous leukaemia.

Granulocytic sarcoma is an extramedullary tumour of primitive granulocytic cells. It can develop at any anatomic site and is often a forerunner to the development of acute myelogenous leukaemia. Granulocytic sarcoma of the small intestine presents with abdominal pain and obstruction.

Pediatric nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A review of 27 cases over 10 years at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Pakistan.

Purpose: This study aims to review the clinical features, treatment and outcome of pediatric nasopharyngeal Carcinoma at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center (SKMCH and RC) over ten years.

Methods: Retrospective review of pediatric patients who were diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma and treated at SKMCH and RC from July 1996 to June 2006.

Results: A total of 27 children with NPC were included.

Age-standardized incidence rates for childhood cancers at a cancer hospital in a developing country.

Background: Cancer registration is a neglected area in several developing countries of the world including Pakistan due to funding problems and apathy of most health professionals towards reporting of cancer data.

Methods: The epidemiologic review is the first of its type reporting cancers recorded at a cancer hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, in children less than 15 years of age, belonging to Lahore District, in a one year time period from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. The results have been stratified by gender, 5-year age-groups (0-4, 5-9 and 10-14), and the International Classification of Childhood Cancers diagnostic groups.

Renovascular hypertension: factors affecting the outcome following surgical revascularisation.

This study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan to evaluate factors that affect outcome following revascularisation in patients with renovascular hypertension. We included all the patients diagnosed to have renovascular hypertension, confirmed by renal angiography, between July 1997 and September 2000. Of the total 15 patients, nine were males and six were females.

Pre-operative renal function and selective renal vein renin levels as markers of favourable outcome in renovascular hypertension.

Objective: To evaluate factors that affect outcome following revascularization in patients with renovascular hypertension.

Methods: This study was conducted at the Aga Khan University Hospital. It included all the patients diagnosed to have Renovascular hypertension confirmed by renal angiography between July 1996 to September 2000.

Hodgkin's lymphoma in Pakistan: a clinico-epidemiological study of 658 cases at a cancer center in Lahore.

Objectives: To study the clinico-epidemiological profile of Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) in Pakistan.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively studied all histopathologically proven cases of HL, who presented between Dec 1995 to June 2003 at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Hospital (SKMCH & RC). All the relevant information was obtained through the hospital based cancer registry and medical records of the selected patients.