Survival of patients with urinary bladder cancer in Jordan, 2005–2014

Background: Urinary bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in Jordan. No research on survival from bladder cancer at the national level has been conducted before. Aims: This study aimed to estimate the probability of survival in patients with bladder cancer in Jordan and identify factors associated with survival. Methods: Data were obtained from the database of the Jordan cancer registry. All cases of urinary bladder cancer in Jordanians registered during 2005–2014 were included in the study (n = 2139). Data collected for each case included: age, sex, date of diagnosis, and stage and grade at diagnosis. Actuarial life table survival analysis was used to determine the overall survival probabilities. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to identify independent factors associated with survival. Results: The overall 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year survival probabilities for urinary bladder cancer were 85%, 73%, 69% and 59%, respectively (standard error = 0.01 for each). No significant difference in survival probabilities was found between males and females (P = 0.642). The overall survival probabilities decreased significantly as age at diagnosis increased (P < 0.005). Better survival was observed in patients with early stage and well differentiated tumours at diagnosis. Conclusions: The survival of patients with bladder cancer in Jordan is comparable to that reported from developed countries. A high percentage of data was missing and the reporting of some variables was inconsistent. To improve the quality of cancer data, regular training is needed for hospital focal points on recording complete data

An epidemiological study on survival of oropharyngeal cancer cases in Alexandria, Egypt

A retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine the 5-year survival and prognostic factors for survival for 407 oropharyngeal cancer cases registered in the 3 main hospitals in Alexandria, Egypt, from 1996-2000. Survival analysis was conducted using Kaplan-Meier curves, and multivariate Cox regression analysis. The overall 5-year survival rate was 30.8%. Multivariate analysis showed that significant prognostic factors for survival were tumour stage [hazard ratio = 2.39; 95% CI: 1.41-11.72], tumour site and patient's age. Secondary prevention of oral cancers can be conducted through examination of the oral cavity to find precancerous and early cancerous lesions and hence improve survival

Child Survival: a Strategy for the African Region Report of the Regional Director

The past 20 years have witnessed improvements in child survival due to effective public healthinterventions and better economic and social performance worldwide. Nevertheless, about 10.6million children die yearly, 4.6 million of these in the African Region. About one quarter of thesedeaths occur in the first month of life, over two thirds in the first seven days. The majority ofunder-five deaths are due to a small number of common, preventable and treatable conditions suchas infections, malnutrition and neonatal conditions occurring singly or in combination.2. The average decline in under-five mortality experienced globally over the years is mainlyattributed to decline in rates in countries with rapid economic development. The African Regionneeds to increase its average annual mortality reduction rate to 8.2% per annum if MillenniumDevelopment Goal 4 is to be achieved by 2015. A number of affordable recommendedinterventions have been identified which could prevent 63% of current mortality.3. The key to making progress towards attaining the goal by 2015 is reaching every newborn andchild in every district with a limited set of priority interventions. New and serious commitmentsare necessary to prioritize and accelerate child survival efforts and allocate resources withincountries