The magnitude of breast cancer among surgical patients with cancer and operative outcome of patients five year experience at SPHMMC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, with nearly 1.7 million new cases diagnosed in 2012 (second most common cancer overall). In low and middle income countries (LMCs) like Ethiopia, breast cancers are commonly diagnosed at late stages (>70%), and women may receive inadequate treatment, pain relief, or palliative care and mortality rates are often much higher compared with rates in developed countries. Objective: This study was designed to assess the magnitude of breast cancer among surgical patients with cancer and operative outcome of patients from September 1st 2013- September 1st 2017 at SPHMMC, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methodology: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted at SPHMMC by reviewing charts of 302 patients who were admitted in surgical wards with the diagnosis of breast cancer from September 2013- September 2017. Data was collected using data collecting check list and it was analyzed with computer programs (SPSS version 23). P=0.27, CI=95% and margin of error 0.05 were used. Depending on the results appropriate interpretations, discussions, conclusions and recommendations were made. Results: There were total of 506 patients admitted in surgical ward with biopsy or FNAC diagnosed breast cancer during the five years study period at SPHMMC which shared 34.3% of tumor burden. Most of the patients (n=201, 66.5%) were in reproductive age group and 55.5% were in the age group between 30-49 years with mean age of 43.9. Most patients (n=295, 97.7%) were females with female to male ratio of 42:1. Most patient (n=234, 77.5%) arrived hospitals with painless lump on the breast for more than 6 months and most (n=247, 81.8%) had stage III disease at presentation. Surgery was the most common (n=288, 95.4%) treatment modality for breast cancer and only 13(4.3%) and 4(1.3%) patients received endocrine therapy and neo adjuvant chemotherapy respectively. Most of the patients (n= 300, 99.3%) were referred to BLH for chemo radiotherapy within 4 weeks to 8weeks. Majority of operated patients (n=266, 88.1%) had no post op complications and among complications seroma was the most common (n=12, 4.0%). Conclusion: Breast cancer was the most common cancer among surgical patients admitted with cancer and its prevalence is increasing during the study period. Most patients were young and presented at late stage. Surgery was the main stay of breast cancer management and majority of operated patients had no post op complications. Key words: breast cancer, magnitude, operative outcome, Saint Paul hospital millennium medical collage