The level of awareness of breast cancer is still growing particularly in developing countries such as Nigeria. Unfortunately, the down side of low awareness include among others, the lack of adequate social support systems. It is therefore necessary look into the availability of support systems for breast cancer patients. This cross-sectional descriptive study enrolled 40 females accessing medical care for breast cancer purposively in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. The study participants had received chemotherapy following the surgical removal of the tumour. They were on post-chemotherapy routine check as at the time of the study. A structured questionnaire was administered by two trained interviewers to obtain information on available support system to the study participants. Attitude to the condition among the patients included anxiety and fear (47.5%) as the highest while optimism was the least on the ranking at 25%. Those whose spouses were supportive ranked low at 12.5 %, while majority of them reported their spouses to be indifferent to their situation. Again, support from other family member’s apart spouses was low at 7.5%. None of the participants was receiving formal support from any agency as at the time of the study. The study concludes that anxiety and fear are prevalently experienced among breast cancer patients in the study area, while optimism is at a low ebb. Support systems exists solely within the informal circle of family and even at that, very few experience good support from family.
Breast tumour could be benign or malignant in nature, thus early detection is of the essence for good management outcome. Associated morbidity and mortality in relation to breast cancer, in particular, are of great concern. Among the different challenges in the management of breast cancer, cytopenia is commonly reported, while, associated blood transfusion dependence has received little attention. This study, therefore, looked into the features of breast cancer patients particularly with regards to disease staging and average blood transfusion needs. This cross-sectional descriptive study enrolled 46 female patients accessing medical care for breast tumour in Southern Nigeria. Bio-data and information on clinical assessment were obtained from patients’ case files. Blood sample was collected from each enrolled subject for assessment of carcinoembryonic antigen level by immunochromatographic assay method. Breast tumour was observed to be prevalent among women of reproductive age with a peak at the age range of 36-45 years. Majority of the cases (82.6 %) turned out to be malignant, while 17.4% were benign conditions. Advanced stage 4 cases accounted for 47.4% of the studied group. Increasing prevalence of mortality during therapy was recorded alongside advancement in age as well as stage of the cancer. The carcinoembryonic antigen level varied significantly across the various breast cancer stages. Stage 4 breast cancer showed significantly elevated mean value compared to both stages 1 and 2. There is prevailing late detection of breast cancer in the Nigerian population contributing to high mortality rate and more demands on blood transfusion.
Surgical operations constitute an integral part of medical management of different health challenges. Developing countries suffer from under-reporting of health conditions even when such conditions are fairly common in occurrence. This study observed common surgical cases with a view to highlighting possible associations with gender. A retrospective cross-sectional descriptive approach was adopted. A total of 626 cases presenting for surgical review between a two-year periods from September 2020 to August 2022 at University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar in Nigeria were reviewed. Data analysis to test for gender association was carried out using chi-square analysis on SPSS 22.0 at 95% confidence level with p-value of ≤ 0.05. The highest frequency of 56% was recorded for breast tumour. This was followed by hernia and goitre which accounted for 20% and 15 of surgical cases respectively. Lesser frequencies were observed for lipoma (4%), appendicitis (2%) and fistula (2%). The least among the commonly observed cases was testicular torsion which was recorded to be 1%. Breast tumour and goitre were significantly higher in females compared to males, while hernia was seen to be significantly higher in males compared to females. Testicular torsion occurred solely in males. This study concludes that significant gender associations exist in the distribution of surgical cases at the study centre. While female preponderance was observed for breast tumour and goitre cases, hernia was prevalent among the males.
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