الفهرس 
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Abstract
LCH is a rare disease of unknown etiology, characterized by abnormal proliferation of pathological langerhans cells which affect any organ in the body where the most commonly affected sites are the bones, skin and lymph nodes.
The disease is seen in all age groups, but more common in children aged 0-15 years and it can be congenital.
In Egypt in 2011, the annual incidence of LCH has been estimated to be 2-4 cases per 1 million children aged 15 years or younger where the male to female ratio (M/F) is close to one and the median age of presentation is 4 years.
This study was conducted over a period of 4 months from January, 2013 to April 2013 and included 20 patients (12 males (60%) and 8 female (40%)) with LCH,who presented, diagnosed and treated at Minia Oncology Center from January, 2008 to December, 2012.
Their age at diagnosis ranged from 2 years to 12 years with a mean of 7.4 years and SD ± 3.2.
In this study, LCH patients’files were collected and data were analysed regarding demographic, clinical presentation, investigation, staging, therapy received, risk organs involvement, disease free survival, the overall survival and their outcome.
The most common clinical presentation at diagnosis were bone swelling, in 18 patients (90% of total cases) where the skull and the long bone were the most commonly affected sites but ear discharge was the second most frequent clinical manifestation in 3 cases (15 % of total cases) and enlarged lymph node was the third most frequent clinical presentation were present in 2 children at diagnosis (10% of total cases).
Patients were classified into;
- Patients with high risk organ (e.g.lung) (n=1case only) who received chemotherapy (e.g. vinblastine) + corticosteroids (e.g. prednisone) for 3 months and reactivated after therapy at 3 &6 months then received 6-mercaptopurine (mp) (as a 2nd line of chemotherapy) with relapse and died (from respiratory failure) after 12 months of therapy .where there was a delayed diagnosis and delayed treatment as this case diagnosed as a chronic bronchitis before.