A Review of 5-Year (2017-2021) Survival Rate of Cervical Cancer Patients at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana

It has been estimated that 6.67 million women over the age of fifteen (15) years were at risk of developing cervical cancer in Ghana. It is further estimated that 87% of cervical cancer deaths occur in less developed regions. The aim of the study was to determine the survival rate of cervical cancer patients at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana. The study used a retrospective quantitative research design with data from eighty (80) cervical cancer patients who underwent radiotherapy between 2017-2021. The response rate of 0.85 was achieved with a final working sample of 68. A descriptive statistic was used to determine the frequencies and percentages of age, ethnicity and any other factors that contributed to the survival of the cervical cancer patients. Cox regression, log rank test and Kaplan Meier were used for the survival analysis. The 5-year survival of patients was 34.2% with 31.7% chance of surviving in the premenopausal age than the menopausal stages (sig.0.017). The peak age of diagnosis was between 40 and 80 years, with modal age group between 71 and 80 years with the mean age of 63.32±15.733 years. The youngest age at diagnosis was 27 years and the oldest was 104 years. Nearly 22.1% were premenopausal whilst 77.9% were post-menopausal. There were significant differences in survival rates between patients from different age groups when tested using the log rank test. Women below 50 years had a lower 5-year survival rate compared to those above 50 years. The overall 5-year survival rate among patients with cervical cancer over the studied period was relatively poor compared to developed nations. The survival of cervical cancer patients is indirectly dependent on the stage, size and histopathology of the cancer. Other factors include the availability of effective prevention and treatment, and socio-demographic factors such as age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic parameters