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Gastric carcinoma at Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Addis Ababa
1Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Objective:
To provide a baseline epidemiologic information on gastric cancer from Ethiopia based on hospital data.
Design:
Prospective study.
Setting:
Department of Surgery, Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa.
Subject:
Ninety six patients treated for gastric cancer from 1992-1996.
Interventions:
Data including demographic and clinical features, pathology of the disease and treatment outcome were analysed on 96 of 125 cases of gastric cancer.
Main Outcome Measures:
Duration of symptoms, diagnosis and stage of disease at the time of definitive diagnosis, and postoperative mortality.
Results:
Sixty eight patients were males and 28 females. The mean age was 48.2 +/- 12.7 (range 20-73) years. The histopathology was adenocarcinoma with a Laurence intestinal type in 89 cases. Majority of the cases (90%) had advanced (stage III-IV) tumours. More than forty four per cent of cases had resectable lesions. Postoperative mortality rate was 18.6%. Twenty seven of the 70 cases operated on (57 survived the operations) could be followed up only for less than one year.
Conclusion:
This study, although based on the relative frequency in a hospital material, indicates that gastric cancer is not rare in Ethiopia. Patients appear to present late with advanced cancers.