Influence of Health Literacy on Cancer Prognosis; A Case Report of Childhood Fibrosarcoma

Abstract

Background: Cancer is an emerging global public health threat in low- and middle-income countries, and poor health literacy has resulted into poor outcomes due to late diagnosis and care. Fibrosarcoma is among the rare - highly malignant tumor with poor prognosis when diagnosed late. Its survival rate is estimated to be around 20% in Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as compared to more than 80% in high-income countries. Case presentation: Herein we report a case of 14-years-old boy with a relapsing mass in his left hand. It was initially thought to be benign and it was resected, but later confirmed by tissue histopathological examination to be an infantile fibrosarcoma. Limb salvage surgery was not possible only to end up with forearm amputation. Discussion: Health literacy of healthcare workers and community at large has an influence on outcome of cancer treatments, it reduces incidences of late diagnoses as primary physicians will have an increased suspicion for malignancies whenever they encounter such a mass especially in children. Most of fibrosarcoma are deemed unresectable at diagnosis hence necessitating a multimodal approach including preoperative cytoreductive therapy and surgery. Conclusion: Fibrosarcoma has good prognosis when diagnosed early. To prevent unfavorable cancer-related outcomes and to have good oncological outcomes; health literacy on soft tissue sarcomas should be promoted especially at the community level as it is the case in other types of cancers.