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to assess epidemiologic and clinical aspects of childhood brain tumors in Mali. a retrospective, descriptive study of children aged 0-15 years with brain tumors, conducted in the pediatrics department of the Gabriel Touré University Hospital Center in Bamako, Mali, from January 31, 2007 to December 3, 2012. In all, 41 cases of brain tumors were recorded during this period (mean: 5.5 years old; range: 1-12 years). Brain tumors were most frequent in the children aged 2-5 years (53.7%) and among boys (53.7%). Late stage at presentation was relatively frequent (34.1%) with a mean time to diagnosis of 10 months. Features of elevated intracranial pressure were the most frequent mode of revelation of primary tumors (26.8%). Supratentorial tumors accounted for 83% of the cases, and gliomas were most frequently (29.3%) identified on computed tomography. Only five patients underwent surgical tumor removal. A broader study including the other hospitals in Bamako could help to assess more accurately the epidemiology of pediatric brain tumors in Mali.

Unlabelled: Cancer today is being treated as a public health problem in Africa, as in developed countries., Objective: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the epidemiology and outcome of children treated in the Pediatric Oncology Unit of Gabriel Touré Teaching Hospital in Bamako (Mali), six years after it opened., Methods: Retrospective study of the files of all children aged 15 and younger diagnosed with cancer and treated by chemotherapy between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2010., Results: The study included 690 children. Their mean age was 24 months. The time from observation of first symptoms to consultation was less than 3 months in 200 cases (29%), from 3 to 10 months in 256 (37.1%), and more than 10 months in 234 (33.9%). The five most common childhood cancers were malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) (n=231, 33.5%), retinoblastoma (n=170, 24.6%), nephroblastoma (n=102, 14.8%), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n=54, 7%), and Hodgkin's disease (n=34, 4%). Six years after the unit opened and after a mean follow-up of 3 years, we recorded 272 deaths (39.4%); at least 238 children are still alive (34.5%), with 180 cases (26.1%) lost to follow-up., Conclusion: Childhood cancer survival is still low in Mali, and the rate of loss to follow-up quite high.