Tenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Cancer has become a public health problem and challenge in developing countries, including Ethiopia. There is scant local data on cancer epidemiology due to lack of a surveillance system and limited health care service availability and accessibility. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe epidemiological characteristics of cancer patients attending Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital, Amhara region, northwest Ethiopia. This study was based on a patient cancer registry that takes place in Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital, Ethiopia. All confirmed cancer patients attending the Oncology unit from July 2017 to June 2018 were included in the study. A total of 554 confirmed cancer patients registered in one year period, of which 62.5% were females, and there was significant variation of cancer patients between females (62.5% 95%CI 58.3 to 66.4%) and males (37.5% 95%CI 33.6 to 41.7%). The first five most frequent cancer types seen were lymphoma (20.9%), breast cancer (19.3%), cervical cancer (13.4%), sarcoma (8.7%), and lung cancer (5.8%). Breast cancer, cervical cancer, lymphoma, ovarian cancer, and sarcoma were the first five cancer types among women whereas lymphoma, sarcoma, lung cancer, colorectal, and breast cancer were the five most common cancers among men. We found that there is a variation in the cancer types with sex. This study provides an insight for further exploration of environmental and occupational exposures related factors for cancer to guide future cancer prevention and control programs.