Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Management of Pancreatic Cancer in 4 Hospitals in Yaoundé And Douala (Cameroon)

Author(s): Jean Paul Engbang, Christian Beugheum Chasim, Franck Moise Abenelang, Marcelin Ngowe Ngowe

Introduction: Pancreatic cancer is a public health problem because of its poor prognosis. Most of the factors related to the prognosis of this cancer are negative and pessimistic. Therefore, our work is to estimate the overall survival of our patients and to establish the prognostic factors associated to survival.

Materials and Methods: This was a cohort study with retrospective data collection method, carried out from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2019 i.e. a period of 10 years. The research took place in General hospitals of Yaounde and Douala; at Yaounde University Teaching Hospital and at Laquintinie. We obtained ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Board of the University of Douala. We included records of patients with pancreatic cancer of at least 12 months follow-up after diagnosis.

Results: We had a total of 94 cases of pancreatic cancer during our study. Mean age at diagnosis was 56.5 ±12.3 years, the most represented age group was 50-59 years (48.9%), with sex ratio of 1.6 in favor of men. Median consultation time was 6 months. The most common stage of diagnosis was stage IV of the TNM classification.

Conclusion: At the end of our study, it appeared that survival associated to pancreatic cancer remains low, in fact the median overall survival was 25 months. All prognostic factors found in our study were factors of poor prognosis which were: consultation time >3 months; high serum creatinine level and the occurrence of metastases.

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