| dc.description |
Background
Breast cancer is the most common cancer of women, -comprising 23% of all female cancers around the globe, with an estimated 1.15 million cases diagnosed in 2002 .It is also the leading cause of cancer mortality among women worldwide, with about 411,000 deaths each year. Breast cancer is the second most common malignancy in an African female population after cervical cancer. The male to female ratio for the disease varies from 4-14:100 in different sub-Saharan African countries. (Anderson B.O et al., 2008)
Setting Study was carried out at KCMC hospital which is situated in northern Tanzania at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. KCMC is one of the biggest referral hospitals in Tanzania, which serves a population of about fifteen million people, who comes mainly from Kilimanjaro region itself, Tanga, Arusha, Dodoma, Singida, Shinyanga and cost regions of Kenya.
Objective The main objective was to assess THE REASONS FOR DELAY IN SEEKING MEDICAL CARE BY PATIENTS WITH BREAST CANCER ATTENDING KCM Patient and Methods: The study consecutively enrolled 60 patients with confirmed breast cancer.
Results: A total of 60 adult patients were recruited in the study aged between 18 and 96 years with breast cancer gave consent in this study giving a participation rate of 100%. Most of study subjects 39(65.0%) were aged between 31 and 60 years (mean and standard deviation, 34-66 years). Female patients were the majority 56 (93.3%). Female to male ratio i.e. F: M = 14:1. By marital status, almost two third 40 (66.7%) were married; only 9 (15%) patients were single. Regarding education level, nearly third of patients 19 (31.7%) had primary education, illiterate were 18 (30.0%). More than half of study participants 31 (51.7%) were peasants
Conclusion:
• Late presentation
• Poor knowledge on breast cancer
• Un experienced/low knowledge(Rural medical aids, Medical assistants and Assistant medical officers) on breast cancer to the health worker
• Inadequate report from pathologist
Recommendation
1. Health education on important clinical feature and self breast examination
2. Health education should not isolate Male as breast cancer does not exclude males
3. Training of health workers must include breast cancer to enhance referral of breast cancer patients
4. Reporting of histology result should be standardized. |
|