Malignant Neoplasms in Kosovo's Children and Adolescents, 2024: A Population-Based Study

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Sanije Hoxha-Gashi, Musli Gashi, Mirëlinda Hatashi, Mirlinda Havolli

 
For citation: Hoxha-Gashi S, Gashi M, Hatashi M, Havolli M. Malignant Neoplasms in Kosovo's Children and Adolescents, 2024: A Population-Based Study. International Journal of Biomedicine. 2025;15(2):319-324. doi:10.21103/Article15(2)_OA8
 
Originally published June 5, 2025
 

Abstract: 

Background: The global prevalence of malignant neoplasms has been steadily increasing for more than a half-century and has now reached pandemic proportions. Millions of people suffer from preventable malignancies.  Data are vital for determining what actions are required and which populations should be addressed. This paper presents cases of malignant neoplasms among children and adolescents in Kosovo reported in the population-based registry at the Department of Health Statistics (DHS) at the NIPHK for the year 2024.
Methods and Results: For this retrospective analytic study, the main source of information was the DHS's annual reports on malignant diseases at the NIPHK for 2024. In 2024, in the population registry of malignant diseases at the DHS at the NIPHK, 56 new cases of malignant diseases in children  (aged 0–14 years) and adolescents  (aged 15–19 years) were reported. Of these, half were boys, and half were girls. Those aged 0–4 years were 19% and 33.9%, respectively; those aged 5–9 years and 10–14 years were 12% and 21.4%, respectively; and those aged 15–19 years were 13% and 23.2%, respectively. The incidence of neoplasms in 2024 in Kosovo among children and adolescents was 11.9 cases per 100,000. Of the 56 new cases with neoplasms, almost half (23/41.1%) were malignant neoplasms, stated or presumed to be primary, of lymphoid, hematopoietic, and related tissue (C81-C96); 8/14.3% were malignant neoplasms of eye, brain and other parts of the central nervous system (C69-C72); 6/10.7% were malignant neoplasms of the urinary tract  (C64-C67); and 5/8.9% cases were malignant neoplasms of mesothelial and soft tissue (C45-C49) and of female genital organs (C51-C58), while the other groups were one or two cases each.
Conclusion: Our study provides strong evidence of the incidence of cancer among children and adolescents in Kosovo, highlighting the need to develop strategies and programs to reduce the burden of cancer in children and adolescents in Kosovo.

Keywords: 
neoplasm • cancer • children • adolescents • Kosovo
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Received April 21, 2025.
Accepted May 31, 2025.
©2025 International Medical Research and Development Corporation.