Three-year survival of breast cancer patients attending a one-stop breast care clinic nested within a primary care health facility in sub-Saharan Africa-Zambia.

In Zambia, women with breast symptoms travel through multiple levels of the healthcare system before obtaining a definitive diagnosis. To eradicate this critical barrier to care, we nested a novel breast specialty service platform inside a large public-sector primary healthcare facility in Lusaka, Zambia to offer clinical breast examination, breast ultrasound, and ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy in a one-stop format, tightly linked to referral for treatment. The objective of the study was to determine the life expectancy and survival outcomes of a prospective cohort of women diagnosed with breast cancer who were attended to and followed up at the clinic. The effect of breast cancer stage on prognosis was determined by estimating stage-specific crude survival using the Kaplan-Meier method. Survival analysis was used to estimate mean lifespan according to age and stage at diagnosis. We enrolled 302 women with histologically confirmed breast cancer. The overall 3-year survival was 73%. An increase in patients presenting with early breast cancer and improvements in their survival were observed. Women with early-stage breast cancer had a lifespan similar to the general population, while loss of life expectancy was significant at more advanced stages of disease. Our findings suggest that implementing efficient breast care services at the primary care level can avert a substantial proportion of breast cancer-related deaths. The mitigating factor appears to be stage of disease at the time of diagnosis, the cause of which is multifactorial, with the most influential being delays in the referral process.

Minimizing Delays in the Breast Cancer Pathway by Integrating Breast Specialty Care Services at the Primary Health Care Level in Zambia.

PURPOSE: In Zambia, more than two-thirds of female patients with breast cancer present with late-stage disease, leading to high mortality rates. Most of the underlying causes are associated with delays in symptom recognition and diagnosis. By implementing breast care specialty services at the primary health care level, we hypothesized that some of the delays could be minimized. METHODS: In March 2018, we established a breast care specialty clinic for women with symptomatic disease within 1 of the 5 district hospitals in Lusaka. The clinic offers breast self-awareness education, clinical breast examination, breast ultrasound, ultrasound-guided breast biopsy, surgery, referral for chemoradiation, follow-up care, and electronic medical records. RESULTS: Between March 2018 and April 2019, of 1,790 symptomatic women who presented to the clinic, 176 (10%) had clinical and/or ultrasound indications for histologic evaluation. Biopsy specimens were obtained using ultrasound-guided core-needle procedures, all of which were performed on the same day as the initial visit. Of the 176 women who underwent biopsy, 112 (64%) had pathologic findings compatible with a primary breast cancer, and of these, 42 (37%) were early-stage (stage I/II) disease. Surgery for early-stage cancers was performed at the district hospital within 2 weeks of the time of definitive pathologic diagnosis. Patients with advanced disease were referred to the national cancer center for multimodality therapy, within a similar time frame. CONCLUSION: Breast care specialty services for symptomatic women were established in a district-level hospital in a resource-constrained setting in Africa. As a result, the following time intervals were minimized: initial presentation and performance of clinical diagnostics; receipt of a definitive pathologic diagnosis and initiation of surgery; receipt of a definitive pathologic diagnosis and referral.

Health system strengthening: Integration of breast cancer care for improved outcomes.

The adoption of the goal of universal health coverage and the growing burden of cancer in low- and middle-income countries makes it important to consider how to provide cancer care. Specific interventions can strengthen health systems while providing cancer care within a resource-stratified perspective (similar to the World Health Organization-tiered approach). Four specific topics are discussed: essential medicines/essential diagnostics lists; national cancer plans; provision of affordable essential public services (either at no cost to users or through national health insurance); and finally, how a nascent breast cancer program can build on existing programs. A case study of Zambia (a country with a core level of resources for cancer care, using the Breast Health Global Initiative typology) shows how a breast cancer program was built on a cervical cancer program, which in turn had evolved from the HIV/AIDS program. A case study of Brazil (which has enhanced resources for cancer care) describes how access to breast cancer care evolved as universal health coverage expanded. A case study of Uruguay shows how breast cancer outcomes improved as the country shifted from a largely private system to a single-payer national health insurance system in the transition to becoming a country with maximal resources for cancer care. The final case study describes an exciting initiative, the City Cancer Challenge, and how that may lead to improved cancer services.