Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec 16:13:9225-9234.
doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S339988. eCollection 2021.

Survival and Predictors of Mortality among Breast Cancer Patients in Northwest Ethiopia: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Mulu Tiruneh  1 , Aragaw Tesfaw  1 , Desalegn Tesfa  1
Affiliations

Survival and Predictors of Mortality among Breast Cancer Patients in Northwest Ethiopia: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Mulu Tiruneh et al. Cancer Manag Res. .

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumor and the leading cause of cancer death in over 100 countries. Despite the high burden of difficulty, the survival status and the predictors for mortality are not yet determined in Ethiopia. Studies related to this area are scarce. Therefore, we aimed to estimate the survival status and predictors of mortality among breast cancer patients in Northwest Ethiopia.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study design was carried out from September 2015 to August 2020 among 482 women who had breast cancer in Northwest Ethiopia. A systematic sampling technique was employed to select the required representative sample. The Cox regression model was used to identify the predictors of mortality among breast cancer patients.

Results: For this study, 482 participants had followed for 8824 person-months total analysis time or at-risk time. In our findings, the overall survival of breast cancer patients at the end of two and five years was 54.24% and 25.8%, respectively. In the multivariable Cox regression model, age, stage of BC, menopausal status, and surgical therapy were significant predictors of death.

Conclusion: The overall survival after two years was 54.24%, and after five years was 25.8%. This result is lower than the recently published report and indicates that in LMIC, especially in rural cancer centers, the infrastructure and resources for routine screening mammography are often unavailable. Therefore, there is a need to promote early diagnosis of BC at each level of health-care delivery point.

Keywords: Ethiopia; breast cancer; predictors; survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no conflicts of interest for this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Plot of the overall estimate of Kaplan–Meier survivor function of breast cancer patients in Northwest Ethiopia, 2015–2020.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Kaplan–Meier survival estimates of patients with breast cancer diagnosed by age groups in Northwest Ethiopia, 2015–2020.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Torre LA, Bray F, Siegel RL, et al. Global cancer statistics, 2012. CA Cancer J Clin. 2015;65(2):87–108. doi: 10.3322/caac.21262 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ferlay JSI, Ervik M, Dikshit R, et al. GLOBOCAN 2012 v1.0, cancer incidence and mortality worldwide. France: International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC Cancer Base No. 11 Lyon; 2013.
    1. World Health Organization. Non-communicable disease country profile; 2018.
    1. Memirie ST, Habtemariam M, Asefa M, et al. Estimates of cancer incidence in Ethiopia in 2015 using population-based registry data. J Global Oncol. 2018;4(4):1–11. doi: 10.1200/JGO.17.00175 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abate S, Assefa M, Tigeneh W. Trends of breast cancer in Ethiopia. Int J Cancer Res Mol Mech. 2016;2(1):1.