Cancer patterns at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Republic Of Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. However, patters tend to vary even within a country and various service providing facilities. Understanding of cancer patterns enable improving the provision of health services for the country.
Objective: To determine the patterns of cancer seen in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
Design: Hospital based retrospective study.
Setting: University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital
Subjects: Patients with histologically confirmed cancer managed at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
Results: Records of 45,232 hospital admissions within the study period were evaluated. Of these cancers were 1505 (3.48 %.), consisting of females 883 (58.7%) and males 622 (41.3%), male to female ratio 1:1.4. The mean age at presentation was 48.4 ± 20.4 years and peak age group 60-69 years. Breast cancer was the most common cancer overall, 18.1% of cases. Prostate, cervical, ovarian and liver cancers were the next most common cancers seen in decreasing frequency.
Conclusion: This study showed that cancers were; more in females and overall breast cancer the most common and prostate cancer in the males.