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. 2022 Jun 16:10:908302.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.908302. eCollection 2022.

Mapping Evidence on the Burden of Breast, Cervical, and Prostate Cancers in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review

Alfred Musekiwa  1 , Maureen Moyo  1 , Mohanad Mohammed  2 , Zvifadzo Matsena-Zingoni  3 , Halima Sumayya Twabi  4 , Jesca Mercy Batidzirai  2 , Geoffrey Chiyuzga Singini  4 , Kabelo Kgarosi  1 , Nobuhle Mchunu  2   5 , Portia Nevhungoni  2   6 , Patricia Silinda  1 , Theodora Ekwomadu  7 , Innocent Maposa  3
Affiliations

Mapping Evidence on the Burden of Breast, Cervical, and Prostate Cancers in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review

Alfred Musekiwa et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Cancer remains a major public health problem, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the provision of health care is poor. This scoping review mapped evidence in the literature regarding the burden of cervical, breast and prostate cancers in SSA.

Methods: We conducted this scoping review using the Arksey and O'Malley framework, with five steps: identifying the research question; searching for relevant studies; selecting studies; charting the data; and collating, summarizing, and reporting the data. We performed all the steps independently and resolved disagreements through discussion. We used Endnote software to manage references and the Rayyan software to screen studies.

Results: We found 138 studies that met our inclusion criteria from 2,751 studies identified through the electronic databases. The majority were retrospective studies of mostly registries and patient files (n = 77, 55.8%), followed by cross-sectional studies (n = 51, 36.9%). We included studies published from 1990 to 2021, with a sharp increase from 2010 to 2021. The quality of studies was overall satisfactory. Most studies were done in South Africa (n = 20) and Nigeria (n = 17). The majority were on cervical cancer (n = 93, 67.4%), followed by breast cancer (67, 48.6%) and the least were on prostate cancer (48, 34.8%). Concerning the burden of cancer, most reported prevalence and incidence. We also found a few studies investigating mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and years of life lost (YLL).

Conclusions: We found many retrospective record review cross-sectional studies, mainly in South Africa and Nigeria, reporting the prevalence and incidence of cervical, breast and prostate cancer in SSA. There were a few systematic and scoping reviews. There is a scarcity of cervical, breast and prostate cancer burden studies in several SSA countries. The findings in this study can inform policy on improving the public health systems and therefore reduce cancer incidence and mortality in SSA.

Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa; breast cancer; burden; cervical cancer; prostate cancer.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow chart showing the number of studies included in a scoping review for breast, cervical and prostate cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pie chart showing study designs for studies on breast, cervical and prostate cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Trend in the number of included studies over time in years, 1990 to 2021.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Map showing spatial distribution of studies on breast, cervical and prostate cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa (global and multi-country studies were not included on the map).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Figure showing the distribution of studies on breast, cervical and prostate cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa (some studies included more than one type of cancer).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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