Access to cancer chemotherapy and predictors of early mortality for childhood cancers in Uganda.

10070 Background: Although many childhood cancers respond well to chemotherapy, survival among children with cancer in sub-Saharan Africa is poor. Little is known about children’s access to specialized cancer care in SSA or factors contributing to poor early outcomes. We aimed: 1) To estimate the proportion of childhood cancer patients without access to chemotherapy in Uganda; 2) To describe 30-day survival rates and predictors of mortality post diagnosis among children with lymphoma or Kaposi sarcoma (KS), the two most common pediatric cancers in Uganda. Methods: A retrospective study of incident childhood (age< 20 years) cancers diagnosed in Kyandondo County, Uganda from 2006-2009. We compared records of the population-based Kampala Cancer Registry (KCR) and patient records at the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), Uganda’s sole dedicated cancer treatment center. Patient characteristics were compared using Mann-Whitney and Pearson’s chi-square tests. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression models were used t...