Description:
Background: Cervical cancer is a malignant tumor of the cervix that emerges at the junction between the outer squamous cell layer and inner columnar cell lining of the cervix. Death of cervical cancer varied 18-fold between different regions of the world. In developing countries, less than 50% of women with cervical cancer survive longer than 5 years. The survival time and predictors of death from cervical cancer vary in different study settings. Therefore the aim of this study to assess the time to death from and to identify the major predictors of death of cervical cancer patients in Hawassa University specialized and comprehensive hospital.
Objective: To assess time to death from cervical cancer and predictors among cervical cancer patients at Hawassa University specialized and comprehensive hospital, Hawassa, Ethiopia 2023.
Methods: A facility-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted among 212 consecutively selected cervical cancer patients in HUSCH from January 1/2018 to December 31/2022. Data were extracted from the sampled patient charts by using a structured checklist which was prepared in an English version. Frequencies and proportions were used to describe the study population with relevant variables and were presented using tables, pie charts and graphs. Differences in survival among different variables were compared using the log-rank test. The assumption of proportional hazard was checked using Schoenfeld residual test. Variables having a P-value>0.05 were considered as fulfilling the assumption. Variables with a significance level below 0.25 in the bivariable Cox regression model were included in a multivariable Cox regression model analysis, where Variables with a p-value< 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval. Model fitness was checked by Cox-Snell residual.
Results: The overall survival rate was 28.39% at 58 months. It is found that there were a significance differences in survival experience between categories of stage of cervical cancer and comorbidity being stage IV (AHR = 2.1; 95% CI: 1.068-4.068) and being comorbid (AHR=1.3; 95% CI: 0.65-1.233) were a significant predictors of death from cervical cancer.
Conclusion and Recommendations: The median survival time of cervical cancer patients in this study was 6 months. Stage of disease and presence of co-morbidity were significant predictors of death for cervical cancer. Treatment of comorbidities in the early stage of cervical cancer plays a key role in maximizing the survival time of cervical cancer patients