Project Details
Description
The World Health Organization estimates that there were 570,000 cervical cancer cases and 311,000 cervical cancer deaths in 2018. In Botswana, cervical cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women and the leading cause of cancer death. In the past two decades, low to middle income countries (LMICs) like Botswana have spent much of their resources and time battling the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Consequently, the morbidity and mortality from HIV/AIDs is decreasing and the life expectancy of the population is increasing, causing the proportion of disease and death from non-communicable diseases to also increase. As this chronic disease burden accumulates, data, resources, and interventions needed to address this growing concern are scarce, making this an opportune time in LMICs to prioritize cancer care with the intent of reducing the impact of this disease. In Botswana, despite a national healthcare system and cervical cancer screening program, many cervical cancers are diagnosed at advanced stages (stage III or IV) and the mortality rate is high. A partnership between the Botswana Ministry of Health and University of Pennsylvania (BUP), formed in 2001 to combat HIV/AIDs, has recognized the need to expand priorities to include chronic diseases and has developed an infrastructure to capture demographic, social and biological characteristics of cervical cancer patients throughout Botswana. Leveraging information collected on this cohort in the present study is a highly efficient approach to elucidate the epidemiology of cervical cancer in Botswana. This will be the largest study to provide a rich, detailed description of characteristics and geographical associations of cervical cancer in Botswana. For this proposal, we will first investigate patient characteristics that differ according to tumor stage at diagnosis of cervical cancer using cohort data collected in Botswana. Second, we aim to identify geographic location and variation of cervical cancer cases throughout the country using spatial statistical methods. Lastly, we will determine how proximity between a patient?s residence and cancer care relate to stage at diagnosis of cervical cancer using geographic information systems. The overarching aim for this research is to highlight the growing cancer burden in Botswana and learn pertinent information that will lay a foundation for future studies to confirm and characterize factors associated with the increasing burden of cervical cancer, with the ultimate goal of identifying key opportunities to increase early detection, improve access to care, and improve survival for cervical cancer patients in Botswana. In addition, information learned from this research could be utilized to investigate areas where HPV vaccination programs could be implemented. Future work directly resulting from this proposed research could be applied to reduce the burden of cervical cancer in Botswana, and be applied to other cancers, particularly those cancers that would benefit from screening programs, like breast or prostate cancer.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 3/1/21 → 2/28/22 |
Funding
- National Cancer Institute: $46,036.00
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