Distribution and pattern of cancer in patients attending oncology clinic of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla: A retrospective review of five years' records

Abstract

Objective: Cancer prevalence rates have been on the rise throughout the years, with associated high mortality rates. The primary aim of this study was to update existing knowledge and portray the prevailing trends in the occurrence and treatment of cancer in Nigeria.

Methods: An observational cross-sectional study of patients who attended the oncology clinic at the study setting from January 2014 to December 2018. Data was extracted from folders of patients with complete information on cancer diagnosis as well as other relevant information, using a pre-designed data extraction form. These were analysed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 and Excel.

Results: A total of 1986 incident cases were observed from 2014 to 2018. The most common cancer in males was soft tissue sarcoma (12.3%), followed by prostate cancer (11.5%) and colorectal cancer (11.5%), while skin tumours accounted for 9.3%.  Results in females show that breast cancer (64%) was the most reported cancer, followed by cancer of the cervix (11.4%), colorectal cancer (3.7%), and soft tissue sarcoma (5.4%). The highest number of incident cases was observed in 2014.

Conclusion: Breast cancer was observed to be the most prevalent cancer in our study, followed by cervical and colorectal cancers. The emerging rise in the frequency of colorectal cancer and cancers of soft tissue origin calls for the adoption of intensive primary prevention and screening strategies.