Characterization of the child population with oncological pathology in a reference center in the city of Bogotá-Colombia, descriptive cohort (2015 – 2020).

Caracterización de la población infantil con patología oncológica en un centro de referencia de la ciudad de Bogotá-Colombia, cohorte descriptiva (2015-2020)

Pediatric oncological pathology represents a challenge for health systems; its diagnosis, management and prognosis depend on multiple factors that define the possibility of having access to quality medical care. Colombia is one of the Latin American countries with the highest incidence and mortality rate. Objective: to describe the characteristics of the pediatric population with oncological pathology at Hospital Infantil Universitario de San José between 2015 and 2020. Methods: a descriptive cohort study was carried out; Information was collected from the databases of the Hemato-Oncology Service - HIUSJ. Statistical analysis was done using relative and absolute frequencies for qualitative variables, measures of central tendency and dispersion for quantitative variables, and contingency tables. Results: of the 167 patients analyzed, 56% were male and 90% belonged to the contributory regime. Regarding oncological pathologies, 52% correspond to hematolymphoid neoplasias, among which B precursor ALL was the most frequent (29%). This pathology presented the shortest time between hospital admission and confirmatory diagnosis (12 days RIQ 9-17) and treatment (6 days RIQ 4-10). Conclusions: the results obtained in this study allow us to characterize the population and identify indicators during the care of these pathologies, which could define the proper management and prognosis of patients, which is why it is essential to continue recording these pathologies.