Nasiru Akanmu Ibrahim¹, Abiodun O Popoola², Mobolaji A Oludara¹, Foluso O Omodele¹, Idowu Olesegun Fadeyibi¹

Introduction: Late presentation is the hallmark of breast cancer among Nigerians. Awareness of the disease is low and care of this condition has not received adequate attention from Government. Health education to improve awareness was intensified in the last 2 decades. This study aims to assess the current state of care and presentation of breast cancer in Lagos, Nigeria.

Patients and Methods: A prospective study of 350 breast cancer patients seen over a period of four years at a General Surgical unit out-patient clinic of LASUTH was carried out. Data on patient characteristics, presentation, diagnosis and treatment were obtained and analyzed.

Results: Average duration of symptoms was 46.48 weeks. One fifth presented within 3 months while 17% presented after 1 year. Lumps were self-detected in 96% and 287 (82%) presented with advanced disease (stages III & IV). Two hundred and thirty seven patients (67%) received treatment and 175 (74%) among them had mastectomy. None had breast conservation surgery. One hundred and fourteen patients (48%) absconded and did complete treatment.

Conclusion: The trend of late presentation has not changed with current efforts to improve breast cancer awareness. Quality of care for our breast cancer patients is not satisfactory and needs improvement. ...................

Citation: Ibrahim NA, Popoola AO, Oludara MA,, Omodele FO, Fadeyibi IO. Breast Cancer among Urban Nigerian Women: Appraising Presentation and the Quality of Care. Maced J Med Sci. 2011 Dec 15; 4(4):388-392. http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/MJMS.1957-5773.2011.0187.
Key words: Breast cancer; awareness; quality of care; presentation; treatment.
Correspondence: Dr. Nasiru Akanmu Ibrahim. Lagos State University, College of Medicine, Dept of Surgery, Ikeja, Lagos100247, Nigeria. E-Mail: ibrahimakanmu@yahoo.com
Received: 16-Jun-2011; Revised: 17-Aug-2011; Accepted: 01-Sep-2011; Online first: 04-Oct-2011
Copyright: © 2011 Ibrahim NA. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
 

Abstract

Full text (html)

Full text (pdf)

Full text OnlineFirst (pdf)

- Ibrahim NA
- Popoola AO
- Oludara MA
- Omodele FO
- Fadeyibi IO