Prevalence of head and neck cancer in the Eugenio Espejo Specialties Hospital, period 2002-2015, Quito, Ecuador

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence of head and neck cancer in the Oncology Service of the Eugenio Espejo Hospital, from 2002 to 2015. Methods: This is an epidemiological, analytical and cross-sectional study, the data was retrieved from the medical records of patients who were treated with head and neck cancer, all data was collected and transcribed onto an Excel spreadsheet, then coded and analyzed in STATA version 14.0. Descriptive Statistics and the Chi-square and Poisson tests were used with a level of significance of 0.05% at a level of confidence of 95%. Results: There was a prevalence in female gender of 50.7%, the age from 50 to 60 years represented 20.3%, level of education (elementary) with 53.1%, place of residence (highlands) with 76.7%, occupation household chores with 38.4%, anatomical region oral cavity 36.4%, under surgical treatment 38.9%, the time of hospital treatment from 1 to 180 days 44.5% and 31.8% of the patients finished the treatment. Conclusions: Head and neck cancer prevailed in the female gender in the age of 55, ± 5 years, most were from the Andean Mountain (Sierra) region with low level of instruction and whom perform household chores, The oral cavity was the most affected anatomical region.