Epidemiological and clinical profile, and survival of patients followed for breast cancer between 2010 and 2015 at the Yaounde General Hospital, Cameroon

Abstract

Introduction approximately 6000 Cameroonian women died of cancer in 2018, and the breast is the most affected with 2625 new cases. The aim of this study was to establish a pattern of malignant breast tumours in Yaoundé (Cameroon). Methods this study was a descriptive and analytical retrospective study of breast cancer between January 2010 and December 2015 in Yaoundé General Hospital (YGH) after the Institutional ethics committee approval. The variables studied were the socio-demographic characteristics, risk factors for breast cancer, types of tumours and type of treatments. The 5-year survival was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method. The adjusted hazard ratios and their 95% confidence intervals were calculated to assess the association between studied variables and patient survival through the cox regression using SPSS 23 software. The difference was considered significant at p < 0.05. Results among the 344 files collected in this study, breast cancer patients were predominantly female (96.64%, n = 288) aged 45.39 ± 13.35 years, with invasive ductal carcinoma (68.03%, n = 270), located in the left breast (52%, n= 147). The average tumour size was ~6.5 ± 0.3 cm and diagnosed in grade II of Scarf Bloom Richardson (SBR) in 60% (n= 150) of cases. The 5-year survival was 43.3%. Factors associated with this poor survival were the religion (aHR 5.05, 95% CI: 1.57 - 16.25; p = 0.007 for animist and aHR 4.2, 95% CI: 1.53 - 11.46; p = 0.005 for protestant), location of the tumour (aHR 6.24, 95% CI: 1.58 - 24.60; p = 0.012), tumor height (aHR 0.21, 95% CI: 0.04 - 1.11; p = 0.011) and the time spent before medical treatment (aHR 5.12, 95% CI: 0.39 - 8.38; p = 0.011). Conclusion the young age, large tumour size and high histological grade in our studied population suggest a weak awareness of women about breast cancer. Action should be taken in early screening to improve the management of breast cancer in Cameroon.

Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Survival of Breast Cancer: Data from the Population-Based Cancer Registry of the City of Parakou from 2017 to 2021

“…In our study, the 5-year overall survival rate was 47%. Similar rates were reported by Gnangnon et al [53] in southern Benin, Zingué et al [54] in Cameroon, and Galukande et al [55] [51]. Our survival rate is however much lower than those found in developed countries.…”

Breast Cancer among Young Women in Douala, Cameroon: Epidemiological, Clinical, Behavioural Characteristics and Risk Factors

“…A large proportion of patients were diagnosed at advanced stage of the cancer disease. This fact is extensively reported in the literature, especially in Asia and Africa countries [10,20,21]. In these areas, a cocktail of reasons including predominantly poorly awareness on BC, lack of financial resources, and limited access to high standard care health facilities [20].…”

“…Data on BC in young women are still greatly lacking in Africa, especially in Cameroon where the disease is a cause of concern. Previous reports addressed BC but these were mainly conducted in the Central region of the country and did not exhaustively addressed BC in young women [9][10][11]. We therefore conducted the present study to determine epidemiological, clinical, behavioural and risk factors of BC, with emphasis of the epidemiology among young women living in the town of Douala, Cameroon.…”

Effects of Hibiscus sabdariffa Calyxes Aqueous Extract on Antioxidant Status and Histopathology in Mammary Tumor-Induced in Rats

“…In Cameroon, it represents 20% of all cancers in women with ∼4,000 new cases out of which ∼2000 cases die [ 7 , 8 ]. Just like in other developing countries, in Cameroon, patients present when the cancer is already at an advanced stage.…”