Descriptive epidemiology of nasopharyngeal carcinoma at Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal cancer is distinguished from other cancers of the head and neck in its epidemiology, histopathology, clinical characteristics, and therapeutic outcome. Its unique clinico-epidemiologic pattern of the disease is an area focus for this investigation. Accordingly, the study investigated the demographic and histologic characteristics, as well as the clinical stage at presentation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients at Tikur Anbessa Specialized hospital. METHODS: Hospital based retrospective descriptive study was conducted from September 2017 – October 2020. All biopsy proven incidental cases during the study period are included. SPSS version 26 is used for data entry and analysis. RESULT: A total of 318 patients with histologically confirmed nasopharyngeal carcinoma cases during the study period were included. There were 218 males and 90 females, with a male: female ratio of 2.5:1. The age of patients ranges from 13 to 81 years with a mean age of 37.8 ± 15 years. The median age at diagnosis was 38 years. Age distribution has two peaks for males, first between 30 to 39 and second 50 to 59 years of age. While the peak age of occurrence for females is in the 20–39 age range. Juvenile cases constituted 34% of the study group. The study revealed, nonkeratinizing carcinoma as the most prevalent histology at 94.3% (undifferentiated type 85.9% and differentiated keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma 8.4%) and 5.7% of the cases showed keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma. Majority of the patients, 86%, presented late with stage III and IV disease. CONCLUSION: Nasopharyngeal cancer is commonly found among the young and productive age group, under the age 30. Nonkeratinizing carcinoma is the predominant histopathologic variant resembling that seen in endemic areas of the world. Thus, genetic and early life environmental exposures should be well studied to identify possible risk factors in the region. Late-stage presentation at diagnosis impacts the treatment outcome of patients, thereby indicating the need for a raised index of suspicion among health professionals for early diagnosis and better prognosis of patients.