Burden of cancer in the general surgical population in the eastern region of Ghana

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the surgical burden of malignant disease in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Setting: Regional hospital in the eastern region of Ghana.

Participants: Patients treated by the surgery department at Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua, Ghana.

Interventions: None.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: Primary outcome was incidence of malignancy and secondary outcome descriptive differences between patients who had a benign indication for surgery compared with those with a malignant indication for surgery.

Results: A total of 1943 inpatient surgical procedures were performed from 2015 to 2017 with 13.4% (261) of all procedures ultimately performed for malignancy. Of all breast procedures performed, 95.2% of procedures resulted in a malignant diagnosis. The remaining subtypes of procedures had rates ranging from <1% to 41.2% of procedures performed for malignant disease. Additionally, this study found over 13% of patients admitted to the surgical service for breast cancer ultimately did not undergo a surgical procedure.

Conclusion: This is the first study investigating the burden of malignant disease in the Eastern Region of Ghana. We found a substantial prevalence of malignant disease in the surgical population in this region. This information can be used to aid in future medical resource planning in this region.

Keywords: oncology; pathology; surgery.