DISTRIBUTION OF TYPES OF CANCER AND PATTERNS OF CANCER TREATMENT AMONG THE PATIENTS AT VARIOUS HOSPITALS IN DHAKA DIVISION, BANGLADESH

Abstract

A survey study on 171 cancer patients for various aspects related to cancer was done at different hospitals in Dhaka division, Bangladesh, using a questionnaire. Histopathologically confirmed cancer patients; patients having radiological evidence or clinical evidence of malignancy were included in the study. Majority of the patients came from various districts of Dhaka division (57.8%), while only 3.3% patients were from Sylhet division of Bangladesh. There were 117 male and 54 female patients in this study with the ratio about 2.1:1. Incidence of cancer occurred in middle to old age with majority of the patients. In adult male, lung cancer ranked the top (30, 28.4%), followed by head and neck cancer (14, 12.8%), stomach cancer and leukemia (10, 9.2%), colorectal cancer (9, 8.3%) and carcinoma of male genital organ (7,6.4%). Breast cancer (13,21%) was the major malignancy amongst adult female followed by carcinoma of cervix (12,19.4%), stomach cancer (7,11.3%), colorectal cancer (6,9.7%) and carcinoma of ovary and oral cavity (5,8.1%). In pediatric patients malignancy of lymphatics and lymphoid tissue led the tally while in geriatric group lung cancer found to be more prevalent. From the survey, we also found that, in Bangladesh the main strategy of cancer treatments are surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which are used individually or in combination