Purpose: Low health literacy is a leading cause of treatment abandonment among patients receiving cancer care at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Malawi.
Methods: We developed cancer educational videos featuring Malawian providers and played them in the KCH oncology clinic. The videos addressed cancer-related topics, including disease biology, common myths, diagnostic procedures, treatment, side effects, and survivorship.
Background: Cancer outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain suboptimal, in part due to poor patient retention. Many patients travel long distances to receive care, and transportation costs are often prohibitively expensive. These are well-known and established causes of delayed treatment and care abandonment in Malawi and across SSA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is among the most common cancers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where CHOP is standard treatment and outcomes are poor. To address this, we treated 17 newly diagnosed adult patients in Malawi with Burkitt (n = 8), plasmablastic (n = 8), and primary effusion lymphoma (n = 1) with a modified EPOCH regimen between 2016 and 2019. Twelve patients (71%) were male and the median age was 40 years (range 16-63).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOutcomes for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are poorly described. We report mature data from one of the first prospective SSA cohorts. Patients aged ≥18 years with DLBCL were enrolled in Malawi 2013-2017.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlasmablastic lymphoma (PBL) clinical descriptions are scarce from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where both HIV and EBV are highly endemic. We identified 12 patients with pathologically confirmed PBL from a prospective cohort in Lilongwe, Malawi. Median age was 46 (range 26-71), seven (58%) were male, and six (50%) were HIV-positive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lymphoma is highly associated with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which contributes to worse outcomes relative to resource-rich settings, and frequent failure of first-line chemotherapy. However, there are no second-line treatment descriptions for adults with relapsed or refractory lymphoma (RRL) in SSA.
Methods: We describe HIV+ and HIV- patients with RRL receiving salvage chemotherapy in Malawi.
Given scarce data from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), we sought to describe CD4 count and HIV RNA trends over time among patients with HIV-positive lymphoproliferative disorders in Malawi. We prospectively enrolled HIV-positive individuals with pathologically confirmed lymphoproliferative disorders between 2013 and 2016. Chemotherapy was standardized with concurrent antiretroviral therapy (ART).
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