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. 2021 May:7:802-810.
doi: 10.1200/GO.21.00079.

Systematic Review of Cancer Research Output From Africa, With Zambia as an Example

Violet Kayamba  1   2 , Wilbroad Mutale  3 , Holly Cassell  4 , Douglas Corbett Heimburger  2   4   5 , Xiao-Ou Shu  4   5
Affiliations

Systematic Review of Cancer Research Output From Africa, With Zambia as an Example

Violet Kayamba et al. JCO Glob Oncol. 2021 May.

Abstract

Purpose: Cancer occurrence is increasing in Africa, although research has lagged. The objective of this review was to analyze cancer research outputs from Africa, with a particular focus on Zambia.

Methods: We searched PubMed for published cancer-related articles from African countries. All articles reporting on cancer in Africa were considered. We conducted analyses to explore correlations between cancer research output and total population, gross domestic product, and new cancer cases recorded in 2020. For Zambia articles, we also analyzed cancer types and time trends.

Results: A total of 48,487 cancer-related publications from Africa were identified, with nearly half coming from Egypt (13,372; 28%) and South Africa (9,393; 19%). Cancer research output correlated significantly with country population (Spearman's correlation coefficient 0.74; P < .001) and the number of new cancer cases recorded in 2020 (Spearman's correlation coefficient 0.77; P < .001). Standardized by population size, Western Sahara (0.576), Seychelles (0.244), Tunisia (0.239), South Africa (0.158), and Egypt (0.131) had the highest overall output per 1,000 population. A total of 244 publications were from Zambia; the most studied cancers were cervical (25%), Kaposi sarcoma (24%), and breast (10%). Although an increase in cancer research output from Zambia was noted, only 33% of publications were first or last authored by Zambians. The major limitation of this review is that the evaluation was based on a single electronic database, PubMed.

Conclusion: Cancer research output from Africa is very low, with many of the publications concentrated in a few countries. There is an urgent need to invest in both human resources and infrastructure to increase cancer research output from African countries, particularly in less populous countries.

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Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Flowchart illustrating the selection of publications from the PubMed database for the analysis.
FIG 2
FIG 2
Percentage of cancer research publications from sub-Saharan Africa on the basis of the electronic database PubMed. aIncluded among others are Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Burundi, Seychelles, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Comoros, and Sao Tome and Principe.
FIG 3
FIG 3
Cancer-related publications from Zambia by cancer type and by authorship.
FIG 4
FIG 4
Time trends for cancer research output from Zambia by cancer sites.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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