ABDOMINAL TUMORS IN CHILDHOOD

Malignant abdominal tumors in childhood represent a significant problem worldwide. Numerous new cases of hepatic, renal, pancreatic, and other tumors are diagnosed each year. The three abdominal tumors that report the highest incidence in pediatric age are neuroblastoma, nephroblastoma and abdominal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), each with its own specific clinical-epidemiological characteristics.

At the onset of the pediatric oncologic disease, regardless of the type of tumor involved, there are non-specific signs and symptoms characteristic of this type of disease. It is important that all professionals dedicated to the care of children can identify them in order to immediately indicate the relevant studies whose results will help to obtain the diagnosis in the shortest possible time. This immediacy in terms of diagnosis will be the key to patient survival.

There are currently many diagnostic tools, novel therapeutic and surgical techniques, as well as first level centers dedicated to the specialized care of pediatric oncologic diseases; however, these diseases continue to claim lives because they are not suspected and treated in time and because of their rapid dissemination.

Keywords: abdominal tumors in children, pediatrics, surgery, oncology