Clinical feature, treatment pattern and survival of Esophageal cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Purpose Ethiopia is located within the esophageal belt of Africa. Esophageal cancer is the seventh leading cause of death in Ethiopia. There is a paucity of literature regarding the clinical features, treatment patterns, and survival of patients with esophageal cancer. We report the clinical profile, treatment pattern, and survival of patients with esophageal cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia. Methods An unmatched prospective cohort study was conducted from February 27, 2018 to February 28, 2020. We used the Kaplan–Meier method to assess the overall survival time and survival time according to stage and treatment type. Multivariate Cox regression analysis with the backward LR selection method was used to fit the final model. Result In total, 230 patients with esophageal cancer were recruited for this study. The median survival time was six months (95%CI) (5, 7). A total of 170 (73.9%) patients died during the 1,244 person-month follow-up period, resulting in an overall event rate of 162 per 1,000 person–months. The overall survival rate was very low with 6 months, 1-, and 2-year survival rates of 54.6% (95%CI:47.5%-61.2%), 19.5% (13.8% -25.9%), and 2.0% (0.45%–5.9%), respectively. Chemotherapy, local recurrence, and brain metastases were variables that explained the model. Conclusion survival of patients with esophageal cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital was very short. We recommend multimodal treatment to improve treatment outcomes.