The pattern of malignant disease in north east Nigeria

This paper is a retrospective review of the 780 admissions with malignancy to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital over a five year period, 1983-1987, carried out to determine the type of malignancies presenting and their relative frequencies and to compare this with the rest of West Africa. The commonest tumours were primary liver cell carcinoma with a proportional frequency of 17%, carcinoma of the breast (8%) and bladder (7%). There is a lower incidence of trophoblastic carcinoma (0.3%) than might be expected and a higher incidence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (8% of male tumours). Carcinoma of the stomach and colorectum are uncommon. The possible reasons for this are discussed.