Abstract:

Background: Prostate cancer a common cancer for men and is the major leading cause of death among men. In Tanzania, death from prostate cancer patients reached 3, 309 or 0.89% of total death. In developing countries like Tanzania, majority of prostate cancer presents at advanced stage with only option for treatment being systemic therapy. In our settings, the option for systemic therapy is chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. In previous study which was done in SSA (Sub Saharan) showed no enough data on availability and accessibility of chemotherapy used for treatment of prostate cancer.

Objective: This study to determine availability and accessibility of chemotherapy used for the treatment of prostate cancer at Bugando Medical Centre in Nyamagana district Mwanza, Tanzania.

Methods: In this study, retrospective study design was used by checking cards and cross-sectional study used by interview method to respondents under signed consent form voluntarily who meets inclusion criteria and involving participants randomly selected from patient of prostate cancer attending oncology department in BMC.

Results: The research involved 78 prostate cancer patients who were seeking treatments at oncology department of BMC in Nyamagana District Mwanza Tanzania. The mean age of participants from 55-65 years were 61.5, 66-76 years were 72.1, 77-87 years were 81 and 88-98 years were 89.9. Majority of participants were married 59/78 (75.6%), 64/78 (82%) had formal education and 14/78 (18%) had informal education. Few patients were employed 11/78 (14%), 44/78 (56%) were self-employed while peasants were 14/78 (18%), and 9/78 (12%) were unemployed. Of all participants, 85% were members of National Health Insurance. Availability of chemotherapy was not sufficient, in which Paclitaxel, bicalutamide and Carboplatin were not available at the hospital, and accessibility of chemotherapy were 92% with affordability of 95%.

Conclusion: This study revealed that chemotherapy treatment is the common treatment for patient with prostate cancer at BMC. Chemotherapy is accessible and affordable to most of patients, however, Paclitaxel, bicalutamide and Carboplatin were not available at the hospital.