ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE IN DELAYED DIAGNOSIS OF PATIENTS SUFFERING FROM BREAST CANCER IN PESHAWAR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69723/njms.03.01.0361Keywords:
Awareness, Breast cancer, RadiotherapyAbstract
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is when breast cells mutate and become cancerous cells that multiply and form tumors. Delay diagnosis increases mortality rate and poor prognosis.
OBJECTIVES: The aim was to study awareness regarding delayed diagnosis in breast cancer patients and seeking prompt medical consultation in case of any breast abnormalities such as mass, cyst or pain is the most effective preventive measure.
METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine in Peshawar from December 2020 to August 2021. Data was collected non-probability convenience sampling technique through a pre-structured questionnaire. The inclusion criteria included the female patients diagnosed with breast cancer aged 20 to 70 years who were admitted to the Institute of Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine. Moreover, the data was analyzed through SPSS version 26. The sample size was calculated through the OpenEpi calculator with a 95 % confidence interval and a 5% margin of error. The Chi-square was applied the association was significant and P-value was < 0.05.
RESULTS: The total number of participants was N=226, the maximum participants (n=81, 35.8%) were in the fourth decade of life, followed by the (n=50, 22.1%) in the third decade. Lack of awareness caused a delay with n=92, 40.7% were unaware of their symptoms. A maximum number of participants n=90(40.4%) had taken more than 12 weeks to visit the doctor after encountering their first symptom. There was a strong association between the presentation of diagnosis and time interval with a p-value of 0.013. The significance of the study was to aware the women regarding the early symptoms of breast cancer and prevention.
CONCLUSION: The finding of the study showed that delayed diagnoses were because lack of awareness and unavailability of health care services.
KEYWORDS: Awareness, Breast cancer, Radiotherapy.
References
Unger-Saldaña K, Fitch-Picos K, Villarreal-Garza C. Breast Cancer Diagnostic Delays Among Young Mexican Women Are Associated With a Lack of Suspicion by Health Care Providers at First Presentation. J Glob Oncol. 2019;5:1-12.
DeSantis CE, Bray F, Ferlay J, Lortet-Tieulent J, Anderson BO, Jemal A. International Variation in Female Breast Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2015;24(10):1495-506.
Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018;68(6):394-424.
Yıldız F, Alagüney ME. Is early-stage breast cancer a risk for marital dissolution? Is breast cancer a risk for marital dissolution? Medical Science and Discovery. 2020;7(7):566-9.
DeSantis CE, Lin CC, Mariotto AB, Siegel RL, Stein KD, Kramer JL, et al. Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2014. CA Cancer J Clin. 2014;64(4):252-71.
Rezaianzadeh A, Jalali M, Maghsoudi A, Mokhtari AM, Azgomi SH, Dehghani SL. The overall 5-year survival rate of breast cancer among Iranian women: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies. Breast disease. 2017;37(2):63-8.
Zahedi R, Molavi Vardanjani H, Baneshi MR, Haghdoost AA, Malekpour Afshar R, Ershad Sarabi R, et al. Incidence trend of breast cancer in women of eastern Mediterranean region countries from 1998 to 2019: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Womens Health. 2020;20(1):53.
Majeed AI, Ullah A, Jadoon M, Ahmad W, Riazuddin S. Screening, diagnosis and genetic study of breast cancer patients in Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(2):16-20.
Abbas G, Shah S, Hanif M, Asghar A, Shafique M, Ashraf K. Cancer prevalence, incidence and mortality rates in Pakistan in 2018. Bull Cancer. 2020;107(4):517-8.
Ozmen V, Boylu S, Ok E, Canturk NZ, Celik V, Kapkac M, et al. Factors affecting breast cancer treatment delay in Turkey: a study from Turkish Federation of Breast Diseases Societies. Eur J Public Health. 2015;25(1):9-14.
Colditz GA, Bohlke K. Priorities for the primary prevention of breast cancer. CA Cancer J Clin. 2014;64(3):186-94.
Elzahaf RA, Mekraz EI, Arhaim SM, Almansouri MA. Knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding breast cancer among female students at the College of Medical Technology/Derna. Libyan Journal of Medical Sciences. 2018;2(4):142-6.
Ginsburg O, Yip CH, Brooks A, Cabanes A, Caleffi M, Dunstan Yataco JA, et al. Breast cancer early detection: A phased approach to implementation. Cancer. 2020;126 Suppl 10(Suppl 10):2379-93.
Foroozani E, Ghiasvand R, Mohammadianpanah M, Afrashteh S, Bastam D, Kashefi F, et al. Determinants of delay in diagnosis and end-stage at presentation among breast cancer patients in Iran: a multi-center study. Scientific Reports. 2020;10(1):21477.
Chollet-Hinton L, Anders CK, Tse C-K, Bell MB, Yang YC, Carey LA, et al. Breast cancer biologic and etiologic heterogeneity by young age and menopausal status in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study: a case-control study. Breast Cancer Research. 2016;18:1-10.
Anders CK, Johnson R, Litton J, Phillips M, Bleyer A. Breast cancer before age 40 years. Semin Oncol. 2009;36(3):237-49.
Karent Zorogastua DE, Linda Thelemaque, LeaVonne Pulley & Lina Jandorf. Intrinsic Factors of Non-adherence to Breast and Cervical Cancer Screenings Among Latinas. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.
Partridge AH, Hughes ME, Ottesen RA, Wong YN, Edge SB, Theriault RL, et al. The effect of age on delay in diagnosis and stage of breast cancer. Oncologist. 2012;17(6):775-82.
Zorogastua K, Erwin D, Thelemaque L, Pulley L, Jandorf L. Intrinsic factors of non-adherence to breast and cervical cancer screenings among Latinas. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities. 2016;3:658-66.
Souza CB, Fustinoni SM, Amorim MH, Zandonade E, Matos JC, Schirmer J. Breast cancer: diagnosis-to-treatment waiting times for elderly women at a reference hospital of São Paulo, Brazil. Cien Saude Colet. 2015;20(12):3805-16.
Baig M, Sohail I, Altaf HN, Altaf OS. Factors influencing the delayed presentation of breast cancer at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. Cancer Rep (Hoboken). 2019;2(1):e1141.
Khan MA, Shafique S, Khan MT, Shahzad MF, Iqbal S. Presentation delay in breast cancer patients, identifying the barriers in North Pakistan. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2015;16(1):377-80.
Da Costa Vieira RA, Biller G, Uemura G, Ruiz CA, Curado MP. Breast cancer screening in developing countries. Clinics. 2017;72:244-53.
Parsonage RK, Hiscock J, Law RJ, Neal RD. Patient perspectives on delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancer: a qualitative analysis of free-text data. Br J Gen Pract. 2017;67(654):e49-e56.
Ozmen V, Boylu S, Ok E, Canturk NZ, Celik V, Kapkac M, et al. Factors affecting breast cancer treatment delay in Turkey: a study from Turkish Federation of Breast Diseases Societies. The European Journal of Public Health. 2015;25(1):9-14.
Nouws S, Brandão M, Fontes F, Pereira S, Dias T, Ribeiro AI, et al. Factors associated with time to breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in unscreened women in Portugal. Women Health. 2019;59(6):601-14.
Memon ZA, Kanwal N, Sami M, Larik PA, Farooq MZ. Risk of breast cancer among young women and importance of early screening. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention. 2015;16(17):7485-9.
Kumar S, Shaikh A, Rashid Y, Masood N, Mohammed A, Malik U, et al. Presenting features, treatment patterns and outcomes of patients with breast cancer in Pakistan: Experience at a university hospital. Indian Journal of Cancer. 2016;53(2):230-4.
Sarwar MZ, Shah SFH, Yousaf MR, Ahmad QA, Khan SA. Knowledge, attitude, and practices amongst the Pakistani females towards breast cancer screening program. screening. 2015;8:17-9.
Malik N. Level of knowledge and perceived barriers about mammography among females. Journal of Islamabad Medical & Dental College. 2016;5(4):187-91.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Mr. Ikramullah
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Readers may “Share-copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format” and “Adapt-remix, transform, and build upon the material”. The readers must give appropriate credit to the source of the material and indicate if changes were made to the material. Readers may not use the material for commercial purposes. The readers may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
.png)
