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      Psychological and physical effects of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment on young Ghanaian women: a qualitative study

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      1 , 1 , , 2
      BMC Psychiatry
      BioMed Central

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          Abstract

          Background

          Young women diagnosed with breast cancer face challenges that interfere with their entire life with psychological and physical effects.

          Method

          We employed a qualitative exploratory descriptive design, and recruited twelve participants through purposive and snowball sampling methods to conduct 12 face to face individual interviews. A reputable review board in Ghana; Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, gave ethical clearance for data collection. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic content analysis.

          Results

          Three themes emerged from the data; physical effects of breast cancer, effects of treatment on body image, and emotional effects of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. The negative effects of treatment incapacitated most of the women and limited their activities of daily living. Some experienced severe bodily weakness and stayed indoors for days. Most participants felt they looked unattractive because they have had a mastectomy done, and used pieces of rags and handkerchiefs as breast prostheses. Those who had hair loss through chemotherapy used different kinds of wigs to cover their baldness. Almost all the participants cried, felt depressed, and became emotionally unstable when they were told their diagnosis. Some denied their diagnoses and displaced their anger on healthcare personnel. A few of them felt they had brought disgrace to their families because breast cancer is perceived, a disgraceful disease.

          Conclusion

          Young women diagnosed with breast cancer require psychological interventions and physical support from healthcare personnel and their families.

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          Most cited references39

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          Rising global burden of breast cancer: the case of sub-Saharan Africa (with emphasis on Nigeria) and implications for regional development: a review

          Background Despite mortality from breast cancer in Africa being higher than in high income countries, breast cancer has not been extensively studied in the region. The aim of this paper was to highlight the rising burden of breast cancer with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa as well as trends, characteristics, controversies and their implications for regional development. Methodology A review of published studies and documents was conducted in Medline, Scopus, Pubmed and Google using combinations of key words-breast neoplasm, breast cancer, cancer, incidence, mortality, Africa, Nigeria. Graphical and frequency analyses were carried out on some of the incidence and mortality figures retrieved from published papers and the GLOBOCAN website. Findings Globally, about 25% and 15% of all new cancer cases and cancer deaths respectively among females were due to breast cancer. Africa currently had the highest age-standardized breast cancer mortality rate globally, with the highest incidence rates being recorded within the sub-Saharan African sub-region. Incidence trends such as inherently aggressive tumour and younger age profile had been subject to controversies. Certain factors such as westernized diet, urbanization and possibly increasing awareness had been implicated, though their specific contributions were yet to be fully established. Conclusion Unless urgent action is taken, breast cancer will compound sub-Saharan Africa’s disease burden, increase poverty and gender inequality as well as reverse the current global gains against maternal and neonatal mortality.
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            An update on the management of breast cancer in Africa

            Background There is limited information about the challenges of cancer management and attempts at improving outcomes in Africa. Even though South and North Africa are better resourceds to tackle the burden of breast cancer, similar poor prognostic factors are common to all countries. The five-year overall Survival rate for breast cancer patients does not exceed 60% for any low and middle-income country (LMIC) in Africa. In spite of the gains achieved over the past decade, certain characteristics remain the same such as limited availability of breast conservation therapies, inadequate access to drugs, few oncology specialists and adherence to harmful socio-cultural practices. This review on managing breast cancer in Africa is authored by African oncologists who practice or collaborate in Africa and with hands-on experience with the realities. Methods A search was performed via electronic databases from 1999 to 2016. (PubMed/Medline, African Journals Online) for all literature in English or translated into English, covering the terms “breast cancer in Africa and developing countries”. One hundred ninety were deemed appropriate. Results Breast tumors are diagnosed at earlier ages and later stages than in highincome countries. There is a higher prevalence of triple-negative cancers. The limitations of poor nursing care and surgery, inadequate access to radiotherapy, poor availability of basic and modern systemic therapies translate into lower survival rate. Positive strides in breast cancer management in Africa include increased adaptation of treatment guidelines, improved pathology services including immuno-histochemistry, expansion and upgrading of radiotherapy equipment across the continent in addition to more research opportunities. Conclusion This review is an update of the management of breast cancer in Africa, taking a look at the epidemiology, pathology, management resources, outcomes, research and limitations in Africa from the perspective of oncologists with local experience.
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              Breast cancer survival in sub‐Saharan Africa by age, stage at diagnosis and human development index: A population‐based registry study

              Breast cancer is the leading cancer diagnosis and second most common cause of cancer deaths in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet, there are few population‐level survival data from Africa and none on the survival differences by stage at diagnosis. Here, we estimate breast cancer survival within SSA by area, stage and country‐level human development index (HDI). We obtained data on a random sample of 2,588 breast cancer incident cases, diagnosed in 2008–2015 from 14 population‐based cancer registries in 12 countries (Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe) through the African Cancer Registry Network. Of these, 2,311 were included for survival analyses. The 1‐, 3‐ and 5‐year observed and relative survival (RS) were estimated by registry, stage and country‐level HDI. We equally estimated the excess hazards adjusting for potential confounders. Among patients with known stage, 64.9% were diagnosed in late stages, with 18.4% being metastatic at diagnosis. The RS varied by registry, ranging from 21.6%(8.2–39.8) at Year 3 in Bulawayo to 84.5% (70.6–93.5) in Namibia. Patients diagnosed at early stages had a 3‐year RS of 78% (71.6–83.3) in contrast to 40.3% (34.9–45.7) at advanced stages (III and IV). The overall RS at Year 1 was 86.1% (84.4–87.6), 65.8% (63.5–68.1) at Year 3 and 59.0% (56.3–61.6) at Year 5. Age at diagnosis was not independently associated with increased mortality risk after adjusting for the effect of stage and country‐level HDI. In conclusion, downstaging breast cancer at diagnosis and improving access to quality care could be pivotal in improving breast cancer survival outcomes in Africa.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                mariamiddris123@gmail.com , middrisu@ug.edu.gh
                aziatol@yahoo.com , laziato@ug.edu.gh
                flodedey@yahoo.com
                Journal
                BMC Psychiatry
                BMC Psychiatry
                BMC Psychiatry
                BioMed Central (London )
                1471-244X
                6 July 2020
                6 July 2020
                2020
                : 20
                : 353
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.8652.9, ISNI 0000 0004 1937 1485, Department of Adult Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, , University of Ghana, ; P. O. Box LG43, Legon, Accra, Ghana
                [2 ]GRID grid.8652.9, ISNI 0000 0004 1937 1485, School of Medicine and Dentistry, , University of Ghana Medical School, ; Accra, Ghana
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7813-5525
                Article
                2760
                10.1186/s12888-020-02760-4
                7336427
                32631279
                1ab07576-3c1c-4416-8bd0-cc345404549c
                © The Author(s) 2020

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

                History
                : 6 March 2020
                : 23 June 2020
                Categories
                Research Article
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2020

                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry
                Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry

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