Cancer Incidence in Nigeria: A Tertiary Hospital Experience

Abstract

Background: Cancer is a poorly addressed major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria.Aim: The study aims at analyzing the age, gender and topography of cancer in Delta State, Nigeria.Setting: The research was conducted in the State tertiary health care center, the major referral center in Delta State, Nigeria.Materials and Methods: This is a 6-year (2014-2019) descriptive retrospective study of all histologically diagnosed cancer cases in the department of Histopathology, DELSUTH.Results: Cancer accounted for 668 (28.9%) of the 2300 histologically diagnosed cases, involving 461 females and 207 males with mean ages of 48.40 and 54.14 respectively. The combined sex mean age and age range were 50.17 and 1-98 years respectively. The peak occurred in the 7th decade for males and the 6th decade for females. The most common cancers are breast (36.5%), colorectal (11.7%), prostate (8.1%) cervical (7.2), soft tissue (6%), non-melanoma skin (5.2%), ovarian (4%),metastatic (4%), gastric (2.6%), thyroid (1.8%), and salivary gland (1.4%) cancers. The peak incidence for breast and thyroid cancers; lymphomas; colorectal and cervical cancers; ovarian; and prostate cancers occurred in the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th decades respectively.Conclusion: Cancer constitute a major disease burden, increases in incidence with age, and affects more females than males with breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers as most common cancers. Understanding the local epidemiological characteristic is fundamental to planning for proper preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Pattern of Cancer in Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital

“…Similarly, in an earlier report from the Benin Cancer Registry, located in the South Senatorial District of this state (not covered by the current study), Obaseki et al found a ratio of 1:1.5 [16]. This high preponderance of cancers in females seen in this state is consistent with findings from many states in Nigeria [8,13,[17][18][19][20][21]. The bias for the female gender can be attributed to high proportion of female breast cancer and cervical cancer among the common cancer types seen in the country.…”

“…In males, this study observed prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, NMSC, NHL, and bone and soft tissue cancer as the 5 most common cancers in this part of Edo State, Nigeria. But for the order of ranking, the cancers were also the top 5 documented by Uchendu OJ in Delta State while bladder cancer displaced NHL from the list of top 5 male cancers in Kano State [13,17]. In the earlier report in this state by Obaseki et al, bladder and oesophageal cancers replaced NHL, and bone and soft tissue cancer among the top 5 most frequently diagnosed cancers in this study.…”

“…), three of which are part of the 5 most common cancers in the GLOBOCAN report mentioned above. Also, these were the top 5 cancers obtained in neighbouring Delta State and faraway Kano State of Northern Nigeria, although the orders of ranking from 1 st to 5 th are different [13,17]. Many other researches within Nigeria had at least 3 of the 5 most common cancers in this study making their list of top 5 cancers [8,[18][19][20][21].…”

“…Also, the gender-specific modal age group was 7 th and 8 th decade for males while for females it was 5 th and 6 th decades. The relatively higher age for cancer diagnosis in males appears to cut across the country but with variable margins [8,[17][18][19]21]. In Ibadan and Abuja cancer registries, the highest number of cancer cases in men was seen in 65years and older age-group in both registries, while in women it was 45-54 years and 35-44 years respectively [8].…”

Epidemiological and Pathologic Characteristics of Cancer Morbidity in Elderly Nigerians: A Call for Action

“…Individually, apart from prostate cancer, most cancer peaked right from the 60-64 years age group in this study. Earlier studies had shown that most cancers peaked much earlier than the age of 60 years [27]. The implication for policy makers and legislators is that planning of cancer prevention through public enlightenment on behavioral changes and risk factor modification, cancer screening and vaccination, should target much younger age groups as carcinogenesis is a multi-step evolving process that Carcinoma is the most common geriatric malignancy in this study, accounting for 94.7% of the cancer.…”