Breast cancer has become a real public health problem in Cameroon, particularly in rural areas due to late diagnosis, resulting partly from the absence of national screening programs. This work is aimed at assessing breast cancer awareness in the North Region of Cameroon. Participants were selected in six health centers surrounding the rural area of Garoua, North Region, Cameroon, and administered a questionnaire aimed at assessing their awareness about breast cancer risk factors and screening. Out of the 475 women (including 37 medical personnel) interviewed, 45.5% attended at least secondary school; 91.3% were aware of the disease with the main sources of information from those around them (64.8%), media (46.5%), and health professionals in health facilities (42.7%). 23.3% had misconceptions and myth-based ideas on the origin of the disease. Ignorance was the main reason preventing the performance of breast self-examination, and the high cost prevents individuals from going for mammography. The highest awareness rate was observed in employed women with higher level of education. Our study highlights the need to raise awareness among the populations in North Region, Cameroon, about the risk factors and clinical signs of breast cancer and the importance of screening practice for early diagnosis of breast cancer.

Introduction Late diagnosis has been observed as the hallmark of breast cancer in Cameroonian women where over 70% of patients report with either stage III or IV of the disease, with high mortality and dire socioeconomic consequences. The present study was undertaken to assess the awareness of breast cancer, warning signs and screening methods among Health professionals and general population of Douala. Methods Participants included in this study were health practitioners and women randomly selected and enrolled in six health facilities in the city of Douala, Littoral Region, Cameroon. A self-administered questionnaire was designed for each group and aimed at assessing their knowledge about breast cancer, warning signs and screening practices. Then, 616 women underwent breast palpation, followed by fine needle aspiration (FNA) when a nodule was found. Results Out of a total of 737 participants (121 health personnel and 616 women) interviewed, a majority (96.3%) were aware of the disease with the main source of information being the hospital (76.0%), media (47.1%) and vocational training schools (45.4%) for health personnel; medias (39.9%), health professionals (26.1%) and their entourage (21.9%) for the population. Health workforce presented suitable awareness of the risk factors for breast cancer and its clinical signs even though 37.1% of them had misconceptions and myth-based ideas on the origin of the disease. Both the population and health personnel were aware of the possibility of early screening for breast cancer and cited breast self-examination, clinical breast examination and mammography as screening techniques. Nonetheless, screening practice amongst all women is very poor and mainly due to ignorance, high cost of mammography, together with a lack of mastery of the BSE technique and the fear of actually discovering signs of the disease. Conclusion Our findings show lack of awareness and low practice of breast cancer screening amongst women in Douala and highlight the need to raise awareness and provide the right information to the public for early detection of breast cancer.

Due to the late diagnosis, resulting partly from the absence of national screening programs, breast cancer has become a real public health problem in Cameroon, particularly in rural areas. This work aimed to assess breast cancer awareness in the North Region of Cameroon. Participants were selected randomly in six health centers surrounding rural areas of Garoua, North Region of Cameroon, and administered a questionnaire aimed at assessing their awareness about breast cancer warning signs and screening methods. Out of 475 women (including 37 medical personnel) interviewed, 23.3% had misconceptions and myth-based ideas on the origin of the disease. Employed women were more aware of breast cancer, its risk factors and symptoms as compared to other groups (p < 0.0001) for most of the risk factors and symptoms. Participants with higher education and employed women were also more aware of breast cancer screening, including breast self-examination mammography, and breast ultrasound (p < 0.0001 vs. other groups). Breast cancer screening and breast self-examination were mostly performed by women with higher education and employed women (p < 0.0001 compared to other groups). Ignorance was the main reason preventing women from performing breast self-examination and the high cost prevented going for mammography. Our study highlights the need to raise awareness among the populations in Cameroon North Region about the risk factors and clinical signs of breast cancer and the importance of screening practice for the early diagnosis of breast cancer.

Due to the lack of hospitals with adequate technical platform on one hand, and high diagnostic costs that cannot be afforded most of the population, the incidence of prostate cancer in Cameroon has increased and has great impact on people’s health. Aim: This work was undertaken with the objective to determine the impact of prostate cancer on erectile dysfunction and how to manage it. Methodology: Sampling of the population was done in a comprehensive and non-probabilistic manner at the Urology Department of Ngaoundere Islamic Hospital, Ngaoundere, Cameroon, between June 2018 and November 2019. Of the 75 patients received, 50 of them participated in this study. Biopsies were taken from these patients to determine and confirm the form and stage of cancer followed by PSA assays. After the diagnosis was revealed, the testosterone assay was carried out in order to evaluate erectile functioning in the patients who equally completed a survey form made available to them in order to get an idea of their health history, the type of treatment followed and their lifestyle. Results: The mean age of the patients was 67 years, with a predominance in the 60-70 age range. 85% of the patients had a Gleason score greater than or equal to 8. Of these patients, 42% had low testosterone levels (< 2.3 ng/mL), resulting to lack of morning erection (66.6%), loss of sexual desire (43.9%), difficulty having a spontaneous erection (88%). On the other hand, erectile dysfunction was revealed in the prostate cancer patients with low testosterone levels, with a history of hypertention (16.6%), diabetes (28.5%) alcohol consumption (44%), tobacco smoking (41%) and having undergone as prostate cancer treatment involving transurethral resection of the prostate (80%) and orchiectomy (20%). Conclusion: The major cause of erectile dysfunction observed in patients suffering from prostate cancer in Northen Cameroon can be attributed to the evolution of the disease, as well as the health history of the patients (diabetes, hypertension).

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