MALIGNANT ABDOMINAL SURGICAL NEOPLASMS IN CHILDHOOD: DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT

Abstract

Neoplasms in childhood come from various etiologies and, although they have a benign course in most cases, some tumors will evolve malignantly. Such tumors can be divided into hematologic and solid tumors. Among solid tumors, this study focuses on malignant abdominal tumors. Therefore, the objective is to discuss the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric abdominal cancers, specifically in the surgical field. To this end, a qualitative and descriptive literature review was carried out from the Virtual Health Library, Google Scholar and Scielo databases. A total of 28 scientific papers were chosen for the construction of this review, 27 of which were articles, in addition to the book “Cancer: Principles and practice of oncology”. Among the main malignant abdominal tumors in childhood, are worth mentioning: nephoblastoma, hepatoblastoma, Burkitt’s lymphoma, pancratoblastoma, adrenal cortex tumors and neuroblastoma. The inspecificity of the symptoms, in addition to the rare occurrence of these tumors, poses obstacles to the diagnosis, as they hinder the diagnostic suspicion. For therapy, each of these neoplasms requires a combination of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy and surgery. Oncologic treatment is not based only on the surgical approach, and it is necessary to establish an individualized plan according to the patient’s stating, however, it is observed that surgery plays an important role, associated with a better prognosis. Thus, it is necessary to carry out new studies on pediatric malignant abdominal tumors so that such pathologies are better known and with that the diagnostic difficulty is attenuated and new therapies are described.