Clinicopathological characterization of patients with advanced esophageal cancer at Princess Marina Hospital, Botswana

Abstract

Introduction: advanced esophageal cancer is one of the most aggressive neoplasms with high morbidity and mortality. Botswana ranks 14th in the world for deaths from this disease. Objective: to determine the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with advanced esophageal cancer at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, Botswana. Method: a prospective-descriptive study was carried out, where 45 patients with endoscopic and histological diagnosis of advanced esophageal cancer were characterized clinically and pathologically, from January to September 2019. Results: males predominated (86.7%), and also patients older than 60 years (60.0%). Dysphagia, anorexia and weight loss were the most frequent symptoms, and prevailed patients with three to six months between the appearance of symptoms and endoscopic diagnosis; inadequate diet, chronic alcoholism, and smoking were the predominant risk factors. The most frequent anatomical location was the middle third (51.1%), the predominant endoscopic type was the vegetative (46.7%) and most of the patients presented the histological type squamous cell carcinoma (95.6%) well differentiated (84.4%). Conclusions: the study of the clinical-pathological characteristics of patients with advanced esophageal cancer allows its correct staging, being a useful tool in the multidisciplinary assessment of treatment due to its complex clinical and institutional management.

Keywords

• disfagia
• cáncer esofágico avanzado
• carcinoma epidermoide
• adenocarcinoma
• aspecto endoscópico vegetante