Children with cancer: characterization of hospitalization in a public teaching hospital

The present quantitative and descriptive study aimed at characterizing the hospitalization of children with cancer, from 2005 to 2009, in Londrina, Parana. 52.2% of the patients were male and 43% had between one and four years of age. The most frequent type of cancer was leukemia and hematology the most frequent medical clinic (35.8%). In regards to mortality, leukemia was predominant (36.0%) among female patients (56.0%) and patients between one and four years of age (56.0%). The results of this study allowed characterizing the pediatric population with cancer. These data can contribute to the decision making of healthcare managers in coping and planning of care for this population group, as well as provide input to the formulation of hypotheses to be investigated in future epidemiological and foster multidisciplinary research excellence.