1 Department of Radiotherapy, Centre Hospitalier Nganda, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic Congo.
2 Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroon.
3 Department of Radiotherapy, CHU Dalal Jamm, Dakar, Senegal.
4 Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Douala, Douala, Cameroon.
5 Radiotherapy department of General Hospital of Douala, Douala, Cameroun.
6 Department of Histopathology, University of Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2024, 24(02), 2475-2483
Received on 10 October 2024; revised on 23 November 2024; accepted on 26 November 2024
Introduction: That study assesses the care pathway to detect the reasons why the patients reached the radiotherapy department of Centre Hospitalier Nganda with advanced breast cancer.
Material and Methods: We conducted a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study from March 2024 to June 2024. We included all new breast cancer patients in our center. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant for all analyses. An average comparison between quantitative variables was performed using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test.
Results and discussion: We enrolled 54 patients. The mean age was 53.13 ± 11.94 years and the median age was 51 years. A breast mass dominated the clinical picture in 87.07% of cases. Regarding the first medical contact, 77.78% of patients sought care in a conventional medical center. During the treatment, 31.48% of patients had received traditional pharmacopeia and 16.67% had undergone holistic treatment. Regarding radiotherapy indications, 14.81% of patients had no relevant indication for irradiation. The average time between the first symptoms and the radiotherapy consultation was 12.9 ± 9.2 months. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between the time from first symptoms to radiotherapy consultation and the staging of the disease (P-value=0.023). Patients who sought care at home (OR: 1.1; 95% CI 0.13-6.89) or in a conventional medical center (OR: 1.49; 95% CI 0.35-7.77) were all at risk of reaching radiotherapy with an advanced disease.
Conclusion: The care pathway of breast cancer patients has a global impact on the outcome and also on the prognosis.
Breast cancer; Patients ‘care; Radiotherapy; Advanced stage
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Abou DAO, Emmanuel Franck ELAME, Kanta KA, Mahomed YESSOUFOU, Ruth MAPENYA, Anne-Marthe MAISON, Vandrome NAKUNDI, Martin ESSOMBA BIWOLE, Albert MOUELLE SONE, Babaka Donatien BATALANSI, Massamba Bienvenu LEBWAZE and Stanislas SULU. Evaluation of patients' care pathway before the first consultation in the radiotherapy department of Centre Hospitalier Nganda (Kinshasa) for breast cancer treatment. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2024, 24(2), 2475-2483. Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2024.24.2.3538