Risk factors associated with five-year survival among leukemia patients in Uganda: evidence from the Uganda cancer institute.

Abstract

This was a retrospective study that investigated the factors associated with the five-year survival rates of leukemia patients in Uganda conducted at Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) using the available electronic secondary data on leukemia patients at the Centre registry. The study considered data on patients diagnosed with leukemia between 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015. Survival of the 349 patients up to 2020 was considered. Those alive at the end of 2020 were censored. A Cox Proportional Hazards model was used to model prognostic factors. A total of 349 respondents were analyzed in this study. Majority were males accounting for (57. 6%). The sample was also comprised of individuals belonging to different age groups. Patients aged above 60 years had only 1.33 times greater hazard of dying compared to children aged between 1 to 15 years (HR = 1.33, 95%CI: 1.136, 1.785). Married had 1.89 times greater hazard of dying as compared to the single, while the divorced/separated had 2.68 times higher hazard of dying compared to the single. HIV positive patients had 1.63 times higher hazard of dying than those who were HIV negative. On the stage of diagnosis, patients who were diagnosed at a later stage had 1.63 times greater hazard than those diagnosed at an early stage. Patients who received chemotherapy had about 0.46 times lower hazard of dying, while those who received immunotherapy had 0.02 times less risk of leukemia than those who received radiotherapy. Therefore, the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders should focus on more interventions that promote the sensitization of patients on the factors associated with the survival of leukemia patients to overcome the observed disparities in survival of leukemia patients.