The spectrum of gastric cancer as seen in a large quaternary hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Data were analysed using SPPS version 21 (IBM, USA) and Stata 12.1 (StataCorp, USA). Continuous variables were summarised using means and standard deviations (SDs). Medians and interquartileThis open-access article is distributed under Creative Commons licence CC-BY-NC 4.0.Background. Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world, with the third-highest associated mortality. It has a varying geographical, ethnic and socioeconomic distribution. Objective. To assess the presentation and management of GC in the Durban metropolitan area, South Africa. Results. The 131 patients were predominantly black African (n=59, 45.0%) and Indian (n=63, 48.1%). Gender was evenly distributed, with 72 males (55.0%) and 59 females (45.0%). The average age of the patients was 60 years (standard deviation 13.3). More than 70% were in advanced stages of cancer and were treated conservatively. There was no significant relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the position of the tumour (p=0.175). Creatinine and albumin levels differed significantly between the genders (p<0.001 and p=0.01, respectively).Conclusions. GC appears to have a disproportionately high prevalence among Indians in Durban, and the prevalence of GC appears to be slightly higher among males. Both these observations may simply reflect referral patterns and warrant further investigation. More than 70% of patients presented with advanced-stage disease, and anaemia was common. No relationship was found between BMI and the location of the tumour, although most of the cancers were in the body and distal part of the stomach.

Molecular profiling of gastric cancer in a population with high HIV prevalence reveals a shift to MLH1 loss but not the EBV subtype

“…1 It has very poor patient outcomes mainly due to late diagnosis and limited therapeutic options. [2][3][4] Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest burden of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), with Zambia's adult population prevalence being 11.3%. 5 While it has no known link to GC, 6 HIV infection has been shown to influence the persistence of active Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection.…”

Presence of blood in gastric juice: A sensitive marker for gastric cancer screening in a poor resource setting

“…On average, the five-year survival for gastric cancer is 25%, but rates less than 5% have been reported in some African countries [ 3 , 4 ]. The stage of disease at initial diagnosis is a major determinant of outcome, and in Africa gastric cancer is often diagnosed late [ 5 , 6 ].…”