Background
A high mortality has been reported during the first ninety days of cancer therapy and is more pronounced in patients with febrile neutropenia. Bugando Medical Center, oncology department offers cancer diagnosis and treatment services to the population of lake-zone of Tanzania with limited data on the 90 days outcome. Here, we report the 90 days mortality and factors associated with it among cancer patients attending oncology department of the tertiary hospital in Tanzania.
Methodology
Enrolled participants underwent baseline physical examinations and functional status assessment using Karnofsky score. On each clinic visit, FBP was taken and patients were investigated for infections. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using STATA version 13.
Results
A total of 102 participants were enrolled. Their median age was 50 years [38-60]. The majority of study participants were females 76(75%) and 82(80.4%) had primary school education. The majority of patients had solid cancer 96(94.1%). A total of 12 (11.8%) patients died within 90 days of starting therapy. Having low hemoglobin level before starting cancer therapy (p=0.001), having Karnofsky score below 80% (p=0.001) and using 5-fluorouracil containing therapy (p=0.004) were found to be associated with mortality within 90 days of therapy among cancer patients.
Conclusion
About 10% of cancer patients die within 90 days of therapy. Anemic patients, with poor performance status and on 5-Fluorouracil regimen are more likely to die within 90 days of cancer therapy.