Oncology in Mozambique: Overview of the Diagnostic, Treatment, and Research Capacity

Abstract

Mozambique is one of the poorest countries worldwide, with nearly two thirds of the population living below the poverty line. Similarly to other less developed countries, there is a weak provision of health care for non-communicable diseases due to competing priorities with infectious diseases. Although the leading causes of death in Mozambique in 2019 were Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome/Human Immunodeficiency Virus and other sexually transmitted diseases and respiratory infections and tuberculosis, with increasing urbanization and westernization of lifestyles, deaths attributed to cancer are also on the rise. This review summarizes cancer burden, cancer prevention and screening, cancer care resources, and trends in cancer training and research in Mozambique, providing a background for the development of cancer care policies in the country.

Keywords: Mozambique; cancer care facilities; cancer screening; cancer vaccines; developing countries; neoplasm; registry.

Figure 1

Flow chart describing the process of selection of articles with Mozambique cancer data from those published in PubMed^® between 1990 and 2022. ^a Includes articles about Kaposi sarcoma (N = 5); breast (N = 4), cervical (N = 2), esophageal (N = 2), liver (N = 1), bladder (N = 1), colorectal (N = 1), and oropharyngeal (N = 1) cancers; lymphoma (N = 1); and several cancers (N = 1). ^b Includes articles about cervical cancer (N = 5); Kaposi sarcoma (N = 3); liver (N = 1), breast (N = 1), esophageal (N = 1), stomach (N = 1), lung (N = 1), penile (N = 1), vulvar (N = 1), and eye (N = 1) cancers; and several cancers (N = 1). *: synonyms.

Figure 2

Number of articles published in PubMed^® from 1990 to 2022, according to the main topic Data were reported in periods of five years, except for the last category (2020–2022) where a period of three years was used.