Paediatric Primary Intracranial Tumours: A 14-year Clinicopathologic Study in North-Central Nigeria

Paediatric intracranial tumours are the commonest solid neoplasms affecting children with increasing incidence worldwide. They are second only to leukaemia in incidence and have the highest rate of mortality among childhood cancers. The aim of this study is to determine the age and sex distribution, histopathological subtypes, WHO tumour grades and neuroanatomical sites of occurrence of paediatric primary intracranial tumours diagnosed histologically in a tertiary health centre in north-central Nigeria.

This was a retrospective descriptive study of primary intracranial tumours histologically diagnosed in children (0-17 years) over a 14-year period at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. Data on age, sex, tumour site, histological diagnosis, tumour grade and clinical presentation were retrieved and analysed using descriptive statistics.

Patient ages ranged from 6 weeks to 17 years with a mean age of 8.99 ± 5.26 years. Peak diagnosis occurred in children 0-4 years (30.8%) with overall female predominance (M: F=1:1.26). The most common tumour was pilocytic astrocytoma (23.1%), followed by medulloblastoma (15.4%). A predominance of low-grade (73.1%) over high-grade tumours (26.9%) was observed, and tumours were equally distributed between the supratentorial and infratentorial compartments. Headache (67.3%) was the most common presenting symptom, followed by impaired vision (30.8%) and gait disturbance (26.9%).

The clinicopathologic pattern of primary intracranial tumours observed in our study is broadly consistent with regional and global reports. An improvement in diagnostic capacity and collaborative research in this field is necessary for improving outcomes.