Surgical Oncological Mortalities: A Fifteen Year Analysis in Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana

Abstract

Introduction: Cancer is the leading cause of death in economically developed countries and second leading cause of death in developing countries. Despite the high cancer mortality rates in developing countries the contribution of cancer to death in surgical
practice has not been determined in our institution. An analysis of cancer deaths in the department of surgery at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is presented.
Methods: All cases of cancer deaths from 1st January 1998 to 31st December 2013 were retrieved and retrospectively reviewed. The sex, age, primary tumour site, period of admission prior to death, cause of death and post-mortem findings formed the primary data for the analysis.
Results: There were 113,960 admissions in the surgical department of KBTH over the fifteen year period, with 4,979 overall deaths, of which 1,637 were cancer mortalities, representing 32.85% of the total mortality and a cancer mortality rate of 1.44%. The commonest cancer deaths were from breast (14.48%), prostate (12.52%), colorectal (9.65%), gastric (8.74%) and pancreas (8.67%). Brain tumours
and Wilm’s tumours accounted for 37% and 21% respectively of cancer mortalities in the paediatric age group. Cancer mortalities in the adolescent age group showed many cases of nasopharyngeal cancers (15.85%). Lung cancers accounted for only 1.16% of cancer mortalities in the institution.
Conclusion: Cancer accounted for a third of the deaths in the surgical department of KBTH with breast and prostate cancers being the leading overall causes of cancer deaths. Deaths due to lung cancer were low contrasting with the world trend.