title: Pattern of Breast Cancer Distribution in Ghana: A Survey to Enhance Early Detection, Diagnosis, and Treatment.
abstract: Background. Nearly 70% of women diagnosed with breast cancer in Ghana are in advanced stages of the disease due especially to low awareness, resulting in limited treatment success and high death rate. With limited epidemiological studies on breast cancer in Ghana, the aim of this study is to assess and understand the pattern of breast cancer distribution for enhancing early detection and treatment. Methods. We randomly selected and screened 3000 women for clinical palpable breast lumps and used univariate and bivariate analysis for description and exploration of variables, respectively, in relation to incidence of breast cancer. Results. We diagnosed 23 (0.76%) breast cancer cases out of 194 (6.46%) participants with clinically palpable breast lumps. Seventeen out of these 23 (0.56%) were premenopausal (<46.6 years) with 7 (0.23%) being below 35 years. With an overall breast cancer incidence of 0.76% in this study, our observation that about 30% of these cancer cases were below 35 years may indicate a relative possible shift of cancer burden to women in their early thirties in Ghana, compared to Western countries. Conclusion. These results suggest an age adjustment for breast cancer screening to early twenties for Ghanaian women and the need for a nationwide breast cancer screening to understand completely the pattern of breast cancer distribution in Ghana.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2315-004X
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Naku Ghartey Jnr
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Biochemistry, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: Akwasi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1666-8342
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anyanful
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9997-3085
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eliason
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: Saanid
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2595-3388
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohammed Adamu
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Debrah