Clinical feature, treatment pattern and survival of Esophageal cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia: a prospective cohort study

Purpose Ethiopia is located within the esophageal belt of Africa. Esophageal cancer is the seventh leading cause of death in Ethiopia. There is a paucity of literature regarding the clinical features, treatment patterns, and survival of patients with esophageal cancer. We report the clinical profile, treatment pattern, and survival of patients with esophageal cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia. Methods An unmatched prospective cohort study was conducted from February 27, 2018 to February 28, 2020. We used the Kaplan–Meier method to assess the overall survival time and survival time according to stage and treatment type. Multivariate Cox regression analysis with the backward LR selection method was used to fit the final model. Result In total, 230 patients with esophageal cancer were recruited for this study. The median survival time was six months (95%CI) ([5][1], [7][2]). A total of 170 (73.9%) patients died during the 1,244 person-month follow-up period, resulting in an overall event rate of 162 per 1,000 person– months. The overall survival rate was very low with 6 months, 1-, and 2-year survival rates of 54.6% (95%CI:47.5%-61.2%), 19.5% (13.8% -25.9%), and 2.0% (0.45%–5.9%), respectively. Chemotherapy, local recurrence, and brain metastases were variables that explained the model. Conclusion survival of patients with esophageal cancer at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital was very short. We recommend multimodal treatment to improve treatment outcomes. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study was funded by the Addis Ababa University School of Public Health through the esophageal cancer thematic research project award with support from Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle (Saale), Germany. The principal investigator, Jilcha Diribi Feyisa, received the fund for this project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Not Applicable The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethical clearance was obtained from the Addis Ababa University Institutional Review Board (IRB) (IRB Reference Number: 096/17/SPH). Permission to review patient charts and contact patients during their visits was obtained from the oncology department. Written informed consent to participate in the study was obtained during the hospital visits. Confidentiality of the information was maintained throughout the study by excluding names as identification in the data extraction form and the data used only for the purpose of the conducted study. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Not Applicable I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Not Applicable I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Not Applicable The data used for this research will be available upon request. [1]: #ref-5 [2]: #ref-7