Mostafa Hossam El Din Moawad1, Mohammad Al-Jafari2, Amira Mohamed Taha3, Jenan Walid A'amar4, Omar Alsayed5, Ibrahim Serag6, Taha Fayad7, Mohammed Ahmed Sadeq8, Khaled Albakri9, Abdulqadir J. Nashwan10, Ahmed Negida11
1Faculty of Pharmacy Clinical department Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt Faculty of Medicine Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt, 2School of Medicine, Mutah University, Al-Karak, Jordan, 3Faculty of Medicine, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt, 4Jordan Hospital, Amman, Jordan, 5Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt, 6Faculty of medicine mansoura University, 7Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine, Sinai University, North Sinai, Egypt, 8Faculty of Medicine, Misr University for Science and Technology, 6th of October City, Egypt, 9The Hashemite University, 10Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar, 11Virginia Commonwealth University
Objective:
Our aim was to analyze current research output and potentially predict future trends in neuro-oncological research in Africa by investigating deficits in the field. This study will help us identify which countries are performing well in this field, and which ones face challenges and how to solve them. Therefore, targeted interventions can be applied to overcome these challenges.
Background:
There is evidence that individuals of African ancestry, particularly those residing in Africa, suffer from an unfortunate amount of under-representation in cancer research worldwide.
Design/Methods:
We conducted a systematic computer-based search on the following databases: (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase) for research articles related to the neuro-oncological field in Africa. We aimed to retrieve any article published in the period between 1st January 2000, to 10th January 2023
Results:
We included 200 eligible articles in our study. The output of neuro-oncological research has been increasing over the past two decades with its peak in 2019. Among the included articles, clinical practice issues constituted the majority (80%), while public health-related topics accounted for 20% of the publications. Regarding the type of central nervous system (CNS) cancer, neuroblastoma was the most common with 26 (13%) articles, meningioma with 21 (10.5%), and glioma with 16 (8%) articles.
Conclusions:
This scoping review reveals an increasing interest in neuro-oncological research in Africa. The findings highlight the need for ongoing efforts to address issues with clinical practice and public health related to CNS cancers in the continent. Future studies should concentrate on filling in knowledge gaps and investigating novel methods for neuro-oncological conditions that affect African populations in terms of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management strategies.