Clinicopathology and treatment patterns of head and neck cancers at Tikur anbessa specialized hospital, radiotherapy center, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.
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Date
2019-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide and its incidence is reported to be increasing both in developed and developing countries. There is lack of published data on clinicopathology and treatment patterns of head and neck cancers in Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess clinicopathology and treatment patterns of head and neck cancers at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Radiotherapy Center, Ethiopia
Methodology: A retrospective cross-sectional study design and simple random sampling technique was used to select the required sample size. Descriptive statistics (mean, SD, frequency, percentage, graph and table) and chi-square results were generated by using SPSS version 21. The level of significance was obtained at 0.05.
Results: Four hundred twenty two (422) histopathologically confirmed head and neck cancers that were treated at TASH from 2014 to 2017 G.C were analyzed in this study. The male to female ratio (M: F) was 1.98: 1. The most common primary site of head and neck cancers was pharynx 156 (37%) and the major histologic type was carcinoma which accounted 358 (84.81%). From carcinomas, squamous cell histologies were 330 (92.12%). Majority of the cases had advanced disease at diagnosis (89.29%). There was unacceptable delay between diagnosis and initiation of treatment.
Conclusion/recommendation: This study showed that head and neck cancers treated at this hospital presented at advanced stage of the disease. Only small proportion of patients took concurrent chemo radiotherapy and there was long duration between diagnosis and initiations of treatments. These all might have reduced the curability of the disease. Majority of cases were males and relatively young at diagnosis. The awareness of the society on head and neck cancers should be increased as it helps to diagnose at early stages of the disease. The government and other stakeholders should expand cancer centers to reduce the treatment delay and increase quality of care of these cancers. Further studies are very important on head and neck cancers to optimize treatment out come
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Head and neck cancer, Patterns of treatments, primary site, clinical Stage, pathology, TASH, Ethiopia