Abstract 72: Pediatric Radiotherapy Patient Characteristics, Treatment Intent and Completion Rates in Zimbabwe: 10- Year Analysis

Abstract Purpose: Pediatric cancer treatment outcomes have been shown to be suboptimal in most low resource countries globally. External beam radiotherapy is a significant component of multimodality standard treatment for many pediatric cancer patients. Most tumors are diagnosed at an advanced stage due to systematic delays in diagnosis in the health delivery system. The scale up of radiotherapy service provision is planned in most parts of Africa. We assessed the radiotherapy treatment of pediatric patients in order to describe the current patient burden, disease prevalences and treatment completion rates. Methods: A retrospective study of pediatric radiotherapy patients defined as age ≤ 18 years who presented for external beam radiotherapy at Parirenyatwa Radiotherapy Centre between 2011–2020 was done. Demographic data, diagnosis, radiotherapy treatment description, fractionation and completion rates was analyzed. Results: Data was analyzed for 230 patients. The median age was 10 years for all patients and the male to female distribution was 59% and 41% respectively. The tumor distribution by anatomical site was 21% central nervous system, 20% genitourinary, 16% hematological, 14% head and neck, 14% soft tissue, 7% bone & cartilage, 7% skin and 2.2% gastrointestinal tract. The most common CNS tumour was brainstem glioma and non CNS tumour was Wilms tumour. Overall, for non-CNS and CNS tumors, treatment intent was recorded as curative in 54% and 87% of patients [OR=0.17; 95% CI: 0.08–0.35; p<0.001]. Dose per fraction varied across primary diagnoses, treatment intent and patient age, ranging from 150–200cGy for CNS tumors and 150–800cGy for non-CNS tumors. Prescribed radiotherapy treatment completion rate for non-CNS and CNS tumors was 84% and 86.7%, respectively [OR= 0.8; 95% CI: 0.36–1.73; p=0.55] Conclusion: We present the first study of Zimbabwe’s largest radiotherapy center pediatric radiotherapy case burden showing that the commonest anatomical sites of the tumours are the CNS followed by the genitourinary tract (Wilms tumour), most patients are treated with curative intent and complete the prescribed therapy. Citation Format: Edith Matsikidze, Tinashe A. Mazhindu, Ntokozo Ndlovu. Pediatric Radiotherapy Patient Characteristics, Treatment Intent and Completion Rates in Zimbabwe: 10- Year Analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research; 2025 Sep 16. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2025;34(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 72.