Abstract 1515P
Background
Tuberculosis (TB) is a common disease worldwide and nearly 10 million people succumb to this disease annually. It is endemic to certain areas including South Asia. A lot of cancer patients at presentation have symptoms that mimic TB as a consequence of which they get misdiagnosed and treated initially for TB. The rationale of this study was to determine the presenting symptoms of cancer patients that are akin in both diseases leading to wrong diagnosis as TB and patients get treated for TB before presenting to oncologists.
Methods
In a cross-sectional study 213 patients were recruited from Oncology outpatient and inpatient of Mayo Hospital Lahore and were interviewed via a preformed valid questioner. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Descriptive analysis and intergroup analysis performed using chi- square (p < 0.05 taken as significant).
Results
213 patients, minimum age 14 and maximum age 93 with an average of 45 (SD ± 15) were taken (51.2% males and 48.8% females). Chi-square analysis (p< 0.05 significant) of groups showed that a lot of presenting symptoms in cancer patients mimic TB and patients get erroneous diagnosis. Most significant symptoms in both diseases which mimic and lead to fallacious diagnosis were weight loss,107 patients (69.48%,p=0.00, Cramer’s V=0.5); anorexia, 99 patients having this symptom (66%, p=0.00,Cramer’s V=0.4); fever, 93 patients (65%, p=0.00, Cramer’s V=0.4); night sweats, 52 patients (77%, p=0.00, Cramer’s V=0.3); cough, 61 patients (77%, p=0.0, Cramer’s V=0.3); rigors and chills, 30 patients (71%, p =0.01, Cramer’s V=0.2); all were given wrong diagnosis. Another strong factor for wrong diagnosis was contact of patient with a known case of TB, 54 patients (85%, p=0.0, Cramer’s V=0.4).
Conclusions
A lot of presenting symptoms are similar in both diseases which lead to wrong diagnosis of cancer patients as TB and these patients continue taking treatment of TB until deterioration. Suspicion must be kept high while taking history of patients presenting with aforementioned symptoms and physician must be prudent enough while advising investigations on basis of history and examination so that cancer patients get diagnosed appropriately.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.