Trial reportPloS one2019
Explaining disparities in oncology health systems delays and stage at diagnosis between men and women in Botswana: A cohort study.
Trial report in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Barriers to Radiotherapy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa for Patients with Cancer: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Pooled it
- Quality of life among non-metastatic breast cancer survivors in Botswana.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2025Article
- Persistence to Adjuvant Endocrine Therapy for Breast Cancer in Botswana: An Observational Cohort Analysis.Breast care (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prostate cancer screening: Knowledge, attitudes and practices in a sample of men in Ramotswa, Botswana.Journal of public health research · 2025Article
- Lymphoma in Sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review of the epidemiology, treatment challenges, and patient pathways.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2025Article
- Access to and Utilization of Endocrine Therapy Among Breast Cancer Survivors in Botswana.JCO global oncology · 2024Article
- Treatment delays for cancer patients in Sub-Saharan Africa: South Africa as a microcosm.Ecancermedicalscience · 2024Article
- Improving identification of symptomatic cancer at primary care clinics: A predictive modeling analysis in Botswana.International journal of cancer · 2022Article
- Distance to Multidisciplinary Team Clinic in Gaborone, Botswana, and Stage at Cervical Cancer Presentation for Women Living With and Without HIV.JCO global oncology · 2022Article
- Disparities in Oral Cancer Stage at Presentation in a High HIV Prevalence Setting In Sub-Saharan Africa.JCO global oncology · 2022Review
- Article
- Breast cancer in Zimbabwe: patterns of care and correlates of adherence in a national referral hospital radiotherapy center cohort from 2014 to 2018.Cancer medicine · 2021Article
- The hidden curve behind COVID-19 outbreak: the impact of delay in treatment initiation in cancer patients and how to mitigate the additional risk of dying-the head and neck cancer model.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2021Article
- The Global Cohort of Doctoral Students: Building Shared Global Health Research Capacity in High-Income and Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Annals of global health · 2021Article
- CytoPAN-Portable cellular analyses for rapid point-of-care cancer diagnosis.Science translational medicine · 2020Article
- Advanced Stage Cancer Patients Experience in Seeking Treatment in Medan, Indonesia.Open access Macedonian journal of medical sciences · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMen in Botswana present with more advanced cancer than women, leading to poorer outcomes. We sought to explain sex-specific differences in time to and stage at treatment initiation.
methodsCancer patients who initiated oncology treatment between October 2010 and June 2017 were recruited at four oncology centers in Botswana. Primary outcomes were time from first visit with cancer symptom to treatment initiation, and advanced cancer (stage III/IV). Sociodemographic and clinical covariates were obtained retrospectively through interviews and medical record review. We used accelerated failure time and logistic models to estimate standardized sex differences in treatment initiation time and risk differences for presentation with advanced stage. Results were stratified by cancer type (breast, cervix, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, anogenital, head and neck, esophageal, other).
results1886 participants (70% female) were included. After covariate adjustment, men experienced longer excess time from first presentation to treatment initiation (8.4 months) than women (7.0 months) for all cancers combined (1.4 months, 95% CI: 0.30, 2.5). In analysis stratified by cancer type, we only found evidence of a sex disparity (Men: 8.2; Women: 6.8 months) among patients with other, non-common cancers (1.4 months, 95% CI: 0.01, 2.8). Men experienced an increased risk of advanced stage (Men: 67%; Women: 60%; aRD: 6.7%, 95% CI: -1.7%, 15.1%) for all cancers combined, but this disparity was only statistically significant among patients with anogenital cancers (Men: 72%; Women: 50%; aRD: 22.0%, 95% CI: 0.5%, 43.5%).
conclusionsAccounting for the types of cancers experienced by men and women strongly attenuated disparities in time to treatment initiation and stage. Higher incidence of rarer cancers among men could explain these disparities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.