Oncology in a Medical ward
Keywords:
Cancer, internal medicineAbstract
Cancer is currently an important public health problem, with
increasing importance in the Medicine Department. To better
understand its impact in this scenario, an analysis of patients
assisted from 2001 to 2003, in a female Medicine Department of
12 beds, was made. There were 923 patients assisted of whom
74 had a history of cancer (excluding cancer associated with
HIV infection). Of these, 31% were newly diagnosed cases, 26%
were patients admitted for a complication directly involved with
the disease and in 43% the cause of admission was not related
to cancer. The most prevalent cancer was of the breast, although
the most commonly diagnosed were those of the haematopoietic
and gynaecological systems. Most cases (73%) presented in stage
IV and had a mortality of 24%, higher than the overall mortality
mean (9%). There was a high percentage of anaemia among these
patients (66.7%) as well as a raised erythrocyte sedimentation
rate (93.1%). Liver function tests showed, in our patients, a high
sensitivity but a low specificity, for detecting liver disease.
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