Abstract:
BACKGROUND : Cancer remains a major public health problem, especially in Sub-Saharan
Africa (SSA) where the provision of health care is poor. This scoping review mapped
evidence in the literature regarding the burden of cervical, breast and prostate cancers
in SSA.
METHODS : We conducted this scoping review using the Arksey and O’Malley framework,
with five steps: identifying the research question; searching for relevant studies;
selecting studies; charting the data; and collating, summarizing, and reporting the
data. We performed all the steps independently and resolved disagreements through
discussion. We used Endnote software to manage references and the Rayyan software
to screen studies.
RESULTS : We found 138 studies that met our inclusion criteria from 2,751 studies
identified through the electronic databases. The majority were retrospective studies of
mostly registries and patient files (n = 77, 55.8%), followed by cross-sectional studies (n
= 51, 36.9%). We included studies published from 1990 to 2021, with a sharp increase
from 2010 to 2021. The quality of studies was overall satisfactory. Most studies were
done in South Africa (n = 20) and Nigeria (n = 17). The majority were on cervical cancer
(n = 93, 67.4%), followed by breast cancer (67, 48.6%) and the least were on prostate
cancer (48, 34.8%). Concerning the burden of cancer, most reported prevalence and
incidence. We also found a few studies investigating mortality, disability-adjusted life
years (DALYs), and years of life lost (YLL).
CONCLUSIONS : We found many retrospective record review cross-sectional studies,
mainly in South Africa and Nigeria, reporting the prevalence and incidence of cervical, breast and prostate cancer in SSA. There were a few systematic and scoping reviews.
There is a scarcity of cervical, breast and prostate cancer burden studies in several SSA
countries. The findings in this study can inform policy on improving the public health
systems and therefore reduce cancer incidence and mortality in SSA.
