A research report submitted to the Faculty of Medicine, University of the
Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of
Master of Medicine in the division of General Surgery.
Johannesburg 2012 / Oesophageal cancer causes much morbidity and mortality in South Africa.
This disease has a 5-year survival of less than 10% despite improvements in
therapy. Most patients present with advanced disease and are suitable only for
palliative care. Current standard of palliative care for patients with end-stage
oesophageal cancer that present with dysphagia include brachytherapy and
stenting. Brachytherapy improves survival and has a more stable quality of life
in the long term when compared to stenting. Conversely stenting has a more
acute relief of dysphagia. In South Africa many patients with malignant
dysphagia face socio-economic constraints that cause delays in therapy,
especially in patients from rural areas.
Many prospective randomized trials of palliative treatment have been done in
the developed world, not taking into account socio-economic constraints. We
present a study from Tshepong Hospital (Klerksdorp, North West province), a
secondary hospital in South Africa.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/17379 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Liakos, Dimitri |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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