scholarly journals Breast Cancer in Ghana: Demonstrating the Need for Population-Based Cancer Registries in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 765-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail S. Thomas ◽  
Kelley M. Kidwell ◽  
Joseph K. Oppong ◽  
Ernest K. Adjei ◽  
Ernest Osei-Bonsu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Ghanaian Women ◽  
Risk Of Cancer

Purpose Breast cancer, the most common cancer worldwide, is the leading cause of cancer mortality in Ghanaian women. Previous studies find Ghanaian women are diagnosed at a younger age and at more advanced stages (III and IV), and have tumors with characteristics similar to African American women. We sought to remedy gaps in knowledge about breast cancer survival in Ghana and its relation to demographic and biologic factors of the tumors at diagnosis to assist in cancer control and registration planning. Methods Individuals with a breast cancer diagnosis who sought care at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital from 2009 to 2014 were identified via medical records. Follow-up telephone interviews were held to assess survival. Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox proportional hazards models assessed survival associated with clinical and demographic characteristics. Results A total of 223 patients completed follow-up and were analyzed. The median survival was 3.8 years. Approximately 50% of patients were diagnosed with grade 3 tumors, which significantly increased the risk of recurrence or death (hazard ratio [HR] for grade 2 versus 1, 2.98; 95% CI, 1.26 to 7.02; HR grade 3 v 1, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.08 to 6.07; P = .04). No other variables were significantly associated with survival. Conclusion Higher tumor grade was significantly associated with shorter survival, indicating impact of aggressive biology at diagnosis on higher risk of cancer spread and recurrence. Contrary to prevailing notions, telephone numbers were not reliable for follow-up. Collecting additional contact information will likely contribute to improvements in patient care and tracking. A region-wide population-based active registry is important to implement cancer control programs and improve survival in sub-Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals Follow-up of Breast Cancer Patients in Ghana: Challenges to Community-based Surveillance

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis O. Laryea ◽  
Baffour Awuah ◽  
Yaw A. Amoako ◽  
Samuel Mensah ◽  
Fred K. Awittor
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Cancer Registration ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Control Programmes ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Sub Saharan

Cancer-related deaths have been projected to increase in sub-Saharan Africa. Cancer control programmes require good quality data in order to provide information for planning and implementing cancer control and prevention activities. Cancer registration and follow-up of cancer cases to estimate survival are useful tools in cancer control programmes. We followed up 136 cases of breast cancer diagnosed from the year 2006 to 2008. The majority of cases (62.5%) could not be reached either by phone or at the residential address indicated in the folders. We recommend a strengthened system of demographic information collection on cases for effective surveillance.

scholarly journals Few Losses to Follow-up in a Sub-Saharan African Cancer Cohort via Active Mobile Health Follow-up

2020 ◽  
Vol 189 (10) ◽  
pp. 1185-1196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena Foerster ◽  
Angelica Anele ◽  
Charles Adisa ◽  
Moses Galukande ◽  
Groesbeck Parham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Median Time ◽  
Mobile Health ◽  
Cancer Survival ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Next Of Kin ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Accurate survival estimates are needed for guiding cancer control efforts in sub-Saharan Africa, but previous studies have been hampered by unknown biases due to excessive loss to follow-up (LTFU). In the African Breast Cancer—Disparities in Outcomes Study, a prospective breast cancer cohort study, we implemented active mobile health follow-up, telephoning each woman or her next-of-kin (NOK) trimonthly on her mobile phone to update information on her vital status. Dates of every contact with women/NOK were analyzed from diagnosis in 2014–2017 to the earliest of September 1, 2018, death, or 3 years postdiagnosis. The cumulative incidence of being LTFU was calculated considering deaths as competing events. In all, 1,490 women were followed for a median of 24.2 (interquartile range (IQR), 14.2–34.5) months, corresponding to 8,529 successful contacts (77% of total contacts) with the women/NOK. Median time between successful contacts was 3.0 (IQR, 3.0–3.7) months. In all, 71 women (5.3%) were LTFU at 3 years: 0.8% in Nigeria, 2.2% in Namibia, and 5.6% in Uganda. Because of temporary discontinuity of active follow-up, 20.3% of women were LTFU after 2 years in Zambia. The median time to study notification of a death was 9.1 (IQR, 3.9–14.0) weeks. Although the present study was not a randomized controlled trial, in this cancer cohort with active mobile health follow-up, LTFU was much lower than in previous studies and enabled estimation of up-to-date and reliable cancer survival.

Reproductive Factors and Risk of Breast Cancer by Tumour Subtypes Among Ghanaian Women: A Population-Based Case-Control Study

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonine Figueroa ◽  
Brittny C. Davis Lynn ◽  
Lawrence Edusei ◽  
Nicholas Titiloye ◽  
Ernest Adjei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Case Control Study ◽  
Reproductive Factors ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Ghanaian Women ◽  
Control Study

scholarly journals Associations of Dietary Patterns with Incident Depression: The Maastricht Study

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1034
Author(s):  
Vincenza Gianfredi ◽  
Annemarie Koster ◽  
Anna Odone ◽  
Andrea Amerio ◽  
Carlo Signorelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Dietary Patterns ◽  
Proportional Hazards ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Preventive Measure ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards ◽  
Healthy Diet ◽  
Patient Health

Our aim was to assess the association between a priori defined dietary patterns and incident depressive symptoms. We used data from The Maastricht Study, a population-based cohort study (n = 2646, mean (SD) age 59.9 (8.0) years, 49.5% women; 15,188 person-years of follow-up). Level of adherence to the Dutch Healthy Diet (DHD), Mediterranean Diet, and Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension (DASH) were derived from a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and annually over seven-year-follow-up (using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire). We used Cox proportional hazards regression analyses to assess the association between dietary patterns and depressive symptoms. One standard deviation (SD) higher adherence in the DHD and DASH was associated with a lower hazard ratio (HR) of depressive symptoms with HRs (95%CI) of 0.78 (0.69–0.89) and 0.87 (0.77–0.98), respectively, after adjustment for sociodemographic and cardiovascular risk factors. After further adjustment for lifestyle factors, the HR per one SD higher DHD was 0.83 (0.73–0.96), whereas adherence to Mediterranean and DASH diets was not associated with incident depressive symptoms. Higher adherence to the DHD lowered risk of incident depressive symptoms. Adherence to healthy diet could be an effective non-pharmacological preventive measure to reduce the incidence of depression.

scholarly journals Association between overall diet quality and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in five Finnish cohort studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Satu Männistö ◽  
Kennet Harald ◽  
Tommi Härkänen ◽  
Mirkka Maukonen ◽  
Johan G. Eriksson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Diet Quality ◽  
Proportional Hazards ◽  
Postmenopausal Breast Cancer ◽  
Healthy Eating Index ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards ◽  
Healthy Diet ◽  
Food Culture ◽  
Alternative Healthy Eating Index

AbstractThere is limited evidence for any dietary factor, except alcohol, in breast cancer (BC) risk. Therefore, studies on a whole diet, using diet quality indices, can broaden our insight. We examined associations of the Nordic Diet (mNDI), Mediterranean diet (mMEDI) and Alternative Healthy Eating Index (mAHEI) with postmenopausal BC risk. Five Finnish cohorts were combined including 6374 postmenopausal women with dietary information. In all, 8–9 dietary components were aggregated in each index, higher total score indicating higher adherence to a healthy diet. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate the combined hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for BC risk. During an average 10-year follow-up period, 274 incident postmenopausal BC cases were diagnosed. In multivariable models, the HR for highest vs. lowest quintile of index was 0.67 (95 %CI 0.48–1.01) for mNDI, 0.88 (0.59–1.30) for mMEDI and 0.89 (0.60–1.32) for mAHEI. In this combined dataset, a borderline preventive finding of high adherence to mNDI on postmenopausal BC risk was found. Of the indices, mNDI was more based on the local food culture than the others. Although a healthy diet has beneficially been related to several chronic diseases, the link with the etiology of postmenopausal BC does not seem to be that obvious.

Prospective cohort study of Kaposi sarcoma treated under real-world conditions in Malawi.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 11569-11569
Author(s):  
Edwards Kasonkanji ◽  
Yolanda Gondwe ◽  
Morgan Dewey ◽  
Joe Gumulira ◽  
Matthew Painschab ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cohort Study ◽  
Kaposi Sarcoma ◽  
Median Number ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Loss To Follow Up ◽  
Presenting Symptoms ◽  
Grade 3 ◽  
Lost To Follow Up

11569 Background: Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is the leading cancer in Malawi (34% of cancers). Outside of clinical trials, prospective KS studies from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are few and limited by loss to follow up. We conducted a prospective KS cohort study of standard of care bleomycin/vincristine (BV) at Lighthouse HIV clinic, in Lilongwe, Malawi. Methods: We enrolled pathologically confirmed, newly diagnosed, HIV+ KS patients from Feb 2017 to Jun 2019. We collected clinical and treatment characteristics, toxicity, and outcomes of KS with follow-up censored Jun 2020. Patients were treated with bleomycin (25 mg/m2) and vincristine (0.4 mg/m2) every 14 days for a planned maximum of 16 cycles. STATA v13.0 was used to calculate descriptive statistics and Kaplan Meier survival analysis. Toxicity was graded using NCI CTCAE v5.0. Results: We enrolled 138 participants, median age 36 (IQR 32-44) and 110 (80%) male. By ACTG staging, 107 (78%) were T1 (tumour severity), 46 (33%) were S1 (illness severity) and 46 (33%) had Karnofsky performance status ≤70. Presenting symptoms included edema in 69 (53%), visceral disease in 9 (7%), and oral involvement in 43 (33%). Prior to KS diagnosis, 70 (51%) participants were aware of being HIV+ for median 17 months (IQR 6-60) and had been on ART for median 16 months (IQR 6-60). Median CD4 count was 197 (IQR 99-339), median HIV-viral load was 2.6 log copies/mL (IQR 1.6 – 4.8) and 57% were HIV-suppressed ( < 1000 HIV copies/ml). The median number of cycles was 16 (IQR 7-16). 62 (45%) participants missed at least one dose due to stock out. Amongst patients with missed doses, the median number was 3 (IQR 2-4) for bleomycin and 2 (IQR 1-3) for vincristine. 14 (10%) participants experienced at least one reduced dose due to toxicity. 5 (4%) participants suffered grade ≥3 anaemia, 13 (9%) grade ≥3 neutropenia, and one participant had grade 4 bleomycin-induced dermatitis. There was no reported grade ≥3 bleomycin lung toxicity or vincristine-induced neuropathy. Of 115 evaluable participants, responses at the end of therapy were: complete response in 52 (45%), partial response in 27 (23%) stable disease in 5 (4%), and progressive disease in 31 (28%). Median duration of follow-up was 20 months. At censoring, 69 (50%) were alive, 36 (26%) dead, and 33 (24%) lost to follow-up. Overall survival is shown Table as crude and worst-case scenario; worst-case assumes all participants lost to follow up died. Conclusions: Here, we present one of the most complete characterizations of KS presentation and treatment from SSA. As in other studies from the region, the majority of patients presented with advanced disease, chemotherapy stock-outs and loss to follow up were common, and mortality was high. Studies are planned to understand the virologic characteristics, improve therapies, and better implement existing therapies.[Table: see text]

scholarly journals Risk of primary gastrointestinal cancers following incident non-metastatic breast cancer: a Danish population-based cohort study

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e000413
Author(s):  
Kasper Adelborg ◽  
Dóra Körmendiné Farkas ◽  
Jens Sundbøll ◽  
Lidia Schapira ◽  
Suzanne Tamang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Colon Cancer ◽  
Cohort Study ◽  
Metastatic Breast Cancer ◽  
Stomach Cancer ◽  
Metastatic Breast ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Gastrointestinal Cancers ◽  
Increased Risk

ObjectiveWe examined the risk of primary gastrointestinal cancers in women with breast cancer and compared this risk with that of the general population.DesignUsing population-based Danish registries, we conducted a cohort study of women with incident non-metastatic breast cancer (1990–2017). We computed cumulative cancer incidences and standardised incidence ratios (SIRs).ResultsAmong 84 972 patients with breast cancer, we observed 2340 gastrointestinal cancers. After 20 years of follow-up, the cumulative incidence of gastrointestinal cancers was 4%, driven mainly by colon cancers. Only risk of stomach cancer was continually increased beyond 1 year following breast cancer. The SIR for colon cancer was neutral during 2–5 years of follow-up and approximately 1.2-fold increased thereafter. For cancer of the oesophagus, the SIR was increased only during 6–10 years. There was a weak association with pancreas cancer beyond 10 years. Between 1990–2006 and 2007–2017, the 1–10 years SIR estimate decreased and reached unity for upper gastrointestinal cancers (oesophagus, stomach, and small intestine). For lower gastrointestinal cancers (colon, rectum, and anal canal), the SIR estimate was increased only after 2007. No temporal effects were observed for the remaining gastrointestinal cancers. Treatment effects were negligible.ConclusionBreast cancer survivors were at increased risk of oesophagus and stomach cancer, but only before 2007. The risk of colon cancer was increased, but only after 2007.

scholarly journals Cohort profile: The Chikwawa lung health cohort; a population-based observational non-communicable respiratory disease study in Malawi

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Njoroge ◽  
Sarah Rylance ◽  
Rebecca Nightingale ◽  
Stephen Gordon ◽  
Kevin Mortimer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Economic ◽  
Lung Function ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Respiratory Symptoms ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Rural Setting ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Lung Health

AbstractPurposeThe Chikwawa lung health cohort was established in rural Malawi in 2014 to prospectively determine the prevalence and causes of lung disease amongst the general population of adults living in a low-income rural setting in Sub-Saharan Africa.ParticipantsA total of 1481 participants were randomly identified and recruited in 2014 for the baseline study. We collected data on demographic, socio-economic status, respiratory symptoms and potentially relevant exposures such as smoking, household fuels, environmental exposures, occupational history/exposures, dietary intake, healthcare utilization, cost (medication, outpatient visits and inpatient admissions) and productivity losses. Spirometry was performed to assess lung function. At baseline, 56.9% of the participants were female, a mean age of 43.8 (SD:17.8) and mean body mass index (BMI) of 21.6 Kg/m2 (SD: 3.46)Findings to dateCurrently, two studies have been published. The first reported the prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms (13.6%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 11.9 – 15.4), spirometric obstruction (8.7%, 95% CI, 7.0 – 10.7), and spirometric restriction (34.8%, 95% CI, 31.7 – 38.0). The second reported annual decline in forced expiratory volume in one second [FEV1] of 30.9mL/year (95% CI: 21.6 to 40.1) and forced vital capacity [FVC] by 38.3 mL/year (95% CI: 28.5 to 48.1).Future plansThe ongoing current phase of follow-up will determine the annual rate of decline in lung function as measured through spirometry, and relate this to morbidity, mortality and economic cost of airflow obstruction and restriction. Population-based mathematical models will be developed driven by the empirical data from the cohort and national population data for Malawi to assess the effects of interventions and programmes to address the lung burden in Malawi. The present follow-up study started in 2019.Strengths and limitations of this studyThis is an original cohort study comprising adults randomly identified in a low-income Sub-Saharan African Setting.The repeated follow up of the cohort has included objective measures of lung function.The cohort has had high rates of case ascertainment that include verbal autopsies.The study will include an analysis of the health economic consequences of rate of change of lung function and health economic modelling of impact of lung diseases and potential interventions that could be adopted.A main limitation of our study is the systematic bias may be introduced through the self-selection of the participants who agreed to take part in the study to date and the migration of individuals from Chikwawa.

The Global Burden of Breast Cancer in Women

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-16
Author(s):  
Isabelle Soerjomataram ◽  
Claudia Allemani ◽  
Adri Voogd ◽  
Sabine Siesling
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Breast Cancer Incidence ◽  
Cancer Control ◽  
Population Based ◽  
High Income ◽  
Cancer Risk Factors ◽  
Consequent Reduction ◽  
Breast Cancer Risk Factors ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract: Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of death from cancer in women. The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer world-wide is projected to increase from an estimated 1.7 million per year in 2012 to 2.2 million new cases per year by 2035. The largest component of this increase relates to demographic change (increasing and ageing populations), changes in breast cancer risk factors linked to westernization, and adoption of unhealthy lifestyles. Although major successes have been observed in improving survival from breast cancer, with a consequent reduction in mortality, these gains have mainly been observed in high-income countries. The international range in population-based survival also remains wide: the most recent 5-year net survival estimates range from <60% in some regions of sub-Saharan Africa to >85% in many high-income countries. These disparities are undoubtedly linked to inadequate access to diagnostic and treatment facilities in low-resource regions, where the number of women being diagnosed each year is still increasing and breast cancer is becoming an urgent problem. Tackling the growing burden of breast cancer will require comprehensive programmes of cancer control, with primary prevention, screening, and treatment tailored to local risk factors and health system capacities. Ongoing global initiatives on breast cancer have developed resource-stratified guidelines to promote early detection and treatment that meet the local cultural and economic situation. Wider adoption and quality assurance of such programmes will be key to reducing the observed global disparities in breast cancer incidence and survival.

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