Abstract:

Background and Objective: Renal function is becoming a global concern children with cancer. Cancer treatment can be associated with renal impairment, hypertension and pre-existing renal impairment. Specifically, among children receiving cancer treatment testing renal functions is important for an improved management. This study will determine the prevalence of renal function among children with cancer at BMC in Mwanza region.

Methods: This study was conducted at Bugando Medical Centre Mwanza region Tanzania among children with cancer where minimum size samples of 40 study participants were enrolled to participate in this exploratory study providing baseline information. Samples processed to determine renal function parameters using COBAS Integra 400 and data obtained was analyzed using STATA version 13.0.

Results: Out of 40 children with median age 4 year (2-5) were male 23 (57.5%). The prevalence of renal function abnormality was 31.3%. 11 (27.5%) had abnormal creatinine results. Of all study participants, 14 (35.0%) had abnormal results of estimated glomerular filtrate rate and 7(17.5%) had abnormal results of both creatinine and estimated glomerular filtrate rate. These findings resulted to an overall prevalence of renal disease among children with cancer to be (31.3%) where no any associated factors was significant associated with the prevalence among study participants (P>0.05).

Conclusion: Mild to moderate renal dysfunction has been observed among newly diagnosed children with cancer admitted at BMC.

Recommendation: Other studies should rely on using exogenous markers such as inulin which is a gold standard measure of GFR.