Clinical and epidemiologic variations of esophageal cancer in Tanzania

Table 1 Descriptive information of the study population of 1332 esophageal cancer patients at Ocean Road Cancer Institute, Tanzania 2006-2013

	n (%)
Age group (n = 1329)
15-34 yr	78 (5.9)
35-44 yr	141 (10.6)
45-54 yr	246 (18.5)
55-64 yr	374 (28.1)
65+ yr	489 (36.8)
Sex (n = 1332)
Male	906 (68.0)
Female	426 (32.0)
Year starting treatment at Ocean Road Cancer Institute (n = 1332)
2006	135 (10.1)
2007	140 (10.5)
2008	174 (13.1)
2009	202 (15.2)
2010	211 (15.8)
2011	171 (12.8)
2012	139 (10.4)
2013	160 (12.0)
Histopathologic diagnosis (n = 626)
Squamous cell carcinoma	569 (90.9)
Adenocarcinoma	57 (9.1)
Smoking and alcohol history (n = 1332)
Status
Alcohol and smoking	396 (29.7)
Alcohol only	150 (11.3)
Smoking only	137 (10.3)
Neither alcohol nor smoking	371 (27.9)
Unknown	278 (20.9)

Table 2 Characteristics of esophageal cancer patients at Ocean Road Cancer Institute, Tanzania by histopathologic types n (%)

	Squamous cell carcinoma (n = 569)	Adenocarcinoma (n = 57)	P value
Sex			0.7338
Male	382 (67.1)	37 (64.9)
Female	187 (32.9)	20 (35.1)
Age group			0.1702
15-34 yr	34 (6.0)	4 (7.0)
35-44 yr	64 (11.2)	1 (1.8)
45-54 yr	111 (19.5)	9 (15.8)
55-65 yr	139 (24.4)	15 (26.3)
65+ yr	221 (38.8)	28 (49.1)
Treatment			0.1349
Radiation	170 (29.9)	16 (28.1)
Chemotherapy	13 (2.3)	4 (7.0)
Both	263 (46.2)	22 (38.6)
None	123 (21.6)	15 (26.3)

Unknown histology and histology reports categorized as “other” were removed for this analysis.

Table 3 Difference in proportion of histopathologic type, sex, and age group between different incident groups in Tanzania n (%)

	Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	P value
Histology						0.1269
Squamous cell carcinoma	276 (92.0)	54 (98.2)	90 (89.1)	39 (90.7)	110 (86.6)
Adenocarcinoma	24 (8.0)	1 (1.8)	11 (10.9)	4 (9.3)	17 (13.4)
Sex						0.1233
Males	425 (65.6)	75 (64.7)	159 (73.6)	71 (66.4)	176 (71.8)
Females	223 (34.4)	41 (35.3)	57 (26.4)	36 (33.6)	69 (28.2)
Age group						0.1441
15-34 yr	41 (6.3)	6 (5.2)	13 (6.0)	5 (4.7)	14 (5.7)
35-44 yr	65 (10.0)	12 (10.4)	28 (13.0)	13 (12.1)	23 (9.4)
45-54 yr	110 (17.0)	16 (13.9)	46 (21.3)	33 (30.8)	41 (16.8)
55-64 yr	196 (30.3)	34 (29.6)	57 (26.4)	20 (18.7)	67 (27.5)
65+ yr	235 (36.3)	47 (40.9)	72 (33.3)	36 (33.6)	99 (40.6)

Group 1-Group 5 reflect decreasing incidence of EC by region, i.e., Group 1 were regions with highest incidence and Group 5 were regions with lowest incidence. Unknown histology and histology reports categorized as “other” were removed for histology analyses, unknown sex were removed for sex analyses, and unknown age were removed for age group analyses.