Epidemiological Pattern of Adult Haematological Malignancies in a Tertiary Hospital in Cross River State

Background: Haematological malignancies are associated with increase morbidity and mortality in our environment. The pattern and distribution of diagnosed haematological cancers vary with age, sex, geographical location, and ethnicity. The epidemiology of adult haematological malignancies has not been described in our institution. This study aim to describe demographic distribution of affected persons and the types of haematological malignancies seen in our institution.

Methods: This is a 10-year (2009-2018) retrospective study of all adult haematological malignancies seen at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Calabar (UCTH). Data of year of presentation and diagnosis, age, gender, tribe, state of residence, place of origin of the patients and type of haematological malignancy were extracted from the hospital cancer, registry, and haematology medical records and from patients’ case-notes. The data were collated into a Microsoft Excel 2016 spreadsheet and analysed with IBM SPSS Version 22. The results were presented using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages), and graphical charts.

Results: A total of 1314 cases of malignancies where seen during the study period. One hundred and thirty eight (10.5%) were adult haematological malignancies. Their ages ranged from 16 to 74 years. They include 73(52.9%) males and 65(47.10%) females with a male to female ratio of 1.1:1. Majority of the patients 105 (76.09%) are indigenes of Cross River State. The prevalence of lymphoid malignancies was higher than myeloid (76.81% vs 23.91%). Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) was the commonest haematological malignancy (36, 26.09%) followed by Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) 28 (20.29%) while Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and Burkitt’s lymphoma 2 (1.45%) each were the least.

Conclusion: This study has highlighted the burden and epidemiological pattern of HM in our institution and would serve as a term of reference for further studies on the topic and a tool for raising awareness on the disease burden.