Background: Kaposi’s sarcoma is the most common sarcoma and second most prevalent cancer seen in Tanzania. This study identifies common toxicity and prevalence of toxicity in AIDS related Kaposi’s sarcoma treated with Doxorubicin, Bleomycin and Vincristine at Bugando Medical Centre, a tertiary care hospital in northwestern Tanzania.
Methodology: A Retrospective cross sectional hospital based study was conducted in Oncology unit at BMC, A tertiary care hospital in northwestern Tanzania from January 2015 to December 2018. The study included 123 patients’ files, most being in the 7-80 years’ age group. Data was filled and analyzed by SPSS version 20 and then recorded based on checklist.
Results and Discussion: Average age of participants was 40 years. Doxorubicin and Vincristine are highly used in treatment of AIDS related Kaposi’s sarcoma patient 92.7% (n=114). Male population were high in number 69.9% (n=86) compared to females 30.1% (n=37). Common toxicities were nausea and vomiting 12.2% (n=15), Anemia 8.94% (n=11), Neutropenia 6.5% (n=8), Neutropenia and anemia 4.1% (n=5), Alopecia 4.88% (n=6), Mucositis 4.1% (n=5), Peripheral neuropathy 4.88% (n=6), Fever 1.62% (n=2), Anemia and vomiting 0.81% (n=1), Neutropenia and vomiting 0.81% (n=1), Thrombocytopenia 0.81% (n=1), Vomiting and diarrhea 0.81% (n=1).
Conclusion and Recommendation: In this study toxicity prevalence was higher 73.8% (n=62) due to chemotherapy used, therefore selection of therapy for Kaposi’s sarcoma must take into account the potential benefits and adverse effect of treatment, interactions with other medication and potential impact on underlying immunosuppression, also there is an urgent to improve and develop health education about the disease.
In this study 31.71% (n=36) patient’s files not documented, Physician and other healthcare provider should document patient information properly in order to observe full picture on complication through management of the disease so as to improve health services in our settings and to optimize the patient’s health related quality of life, and to achieve positive clinical outcomes.