ecancermedicalscience

Research

The epidemiology of cancer in Angola—results from the cancer registry of the National Oncology Centre of Luanda, Angola

17 Feb 2015
António Armando, Mary Clarisse Bozzetti, Alice de Medeiros Zelmanowicz, Fernando Miguel

Knowledge of the epidemiological profile of cancer is a key step in planning national cancer policy. The main objective of this study was to characterize the epidemiological profile of cancer in Angola based on cases of cancer registered at the National Oncology Centre (NOC) of Luanda, the only Angolan hospital to specialize in cancer treatment and diagnosis. The study consisted of a cross-sectional historical review of cases treated at the NOC between 2007 and 2011. The following variables were analysed: tumour location, diagnostic basis, and source of referral, as well as patient age, sex, place of residence, and the stage of the disease. The NOC registered a total of 4,791 patients throughout the study period, at an annual average of 958 cases. The most commonly diagnosed cancers were breast (20.5%), cervical (16.5%), and head and neck cancer (10.6%), followed by lymphoma (7.2%), Kaposi sarcoma (6.1%), and prostate cancer (4%). A total of 76% of patients were under 60 years old, and 10% were less than 15 years old. Of the total number of patients with cancer treated at the NOC, 77.3% lived in the Luanda province. Staging data were only available for patients with breast or cervical cancer, and an analysis of this variable showed that most of these individuals were in advanced stages of the disease. In the absence of a population-based cancer registry, this study constitutes a reasonable assessment of the epidemiological profile of cancer in Angola.

Related Articles

Tooba Ali, Laraib Khan, Bilal Mazhar Qureshi, Asim Hafiz, Maria Tariq, Khurram Minhas, Nasir Ali, Ahmed Nadeem Abbasi
Solomon Kibudde, Awusi Kavuma, Bonny Abal, Moses Fredrick Katumba, Cissy Bangidde Namutale, Daniel Kanyike, Israel Luutu
Swasthik Upadhya, Sameer Rastogi, Adarsh Barwad, Shamim Ahmed Shamim, Dikhra Khan, Sudheer Arava, Vineeta Ojha, Akshit Kumar Ganesan Karthikeyan, Akshya Kumar Bisoi
Dandara Menezes de Araujo Oliveira, Rossana Veronica Mendonza Lopez, Lady Paola Aristizabal Arboleda, Maria Paula Curado
Aditya Dhanawat, Debdeep Samaddar, Bhagyashri Jadhav, Atul Tiwari, Kunal Jobanputra, Arnav Tongaonkar, Minit Jalan Shah, Nandini Menon, Priyamvada Maitre, Mahendra Pal, Amandeep Arora, Aparna Ringe, Archi Agrawal, Santosh Menon, Gagan Prakash, Vedang Murthy, Vanita Noronha, Kumar Prabhash, Amit Joshi
Beatrice P Mushi, Summaiya Haddadi, Alita Mrema, Jerry Ndumbalo, Nanzoke Mvungi, Msiba Selekwa, Julius Mwaiselage, Larry Akoko, Yona Ringo, Rohan Luhar, Rebecca DeBoer, Katherine Van Loon, Elia Mmbaga, Geoffrey C Buckle