Browsing by Author "Rotich, Elyne"

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    Beyond T Staging in the “Treat All” Era: Severity and Heterogeneity of Kaposi’s Sarcoma in East Africa
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2021) Freeman, Esther E.; Semeere, Aggrey; McMahon, Devon E.; Byakwaga, Helen; Laker-Oketta, Miriam; Regan, Susan; Wenger, Megan; Kasozi, Charles; Semakadde, Matthew; Bwana, Mwebesa; Kanyesigye, Michael; Kadama-Makanga, Philippa; Rotich, Elyne; Kisuya, Job; Wools-Kaloustian, Kara; Bassett, Ingrid V.; Busakhala, Naftali; Martin, Jeffrey; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Although many patients with Kaposi sarcoma (KS) in sub-Saharan Africa are diagnosed with AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) T1 disease, T1 staging insufficiently captures clinical heterogeneity of advanced KS. Using a representative community-based sample, we detailed disease severity at diagnosis to inform KS staging and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We performed rapid case ascertainment on people living with HIV, aged 18 years or older, newly diagnosed with KS from 2016 to 2019 at 3 clinic sites in Kenya and Uganda to ascertain disease stage as close as possible to diagnosis. We reported KS severity using ACTG and WHO staging criteria and detailed measurements that are not captured in the current staging systems. Results: We performed rapid case ascertainment within 1 month for 241 adults newly diagnosed with KS out of 389 adult patients with suspected KS. The study was 68% men with median age 35 years and median CD4 count 239. Most of the patients had advanced disease, with 82% qualifying as ACTG T1 and 64% as WHO severe/symptomatic KS. The most common ACTG T1 qualifiers were edema (79%), tumor-associated ulceration (24%), extensive oral KS (9%), pulmonary KS (7%), and gastrointestinal KS (4%). There was marked heterogeneity within T1 KS, with 25% of patients having 2 T1 qualifying symptoms and 3% having 3 or more. Conclusion: Most of the patients newly diagnosed with KS had advanced stage disease, even in the current antiretroviral therapy "treat-all" era. We observed great clinical heterogeneity among advanced stage patients, leading to questions about whether all patients with advanced KS require the same treatment strategy.
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    Feasibility of Rapid Case Ascertainment for Cancer in East Africa: An Investigation of Community-Representative Kaposi Sarcoma in the Era of Antiretroviral Therapy
    (Elsevier, 2021) Semeere, Aggrey; Byakwaga, Helen; Laker-Oketta, Miriam; Freeman, Esther; Busakhala, Naftali; Wenger, Megan; Kasozi, Charles; Ssemakadde, Matthew; Bwana, Mwebesa; Kanyesigye, Michael; Kadama-Makanga, Philippa; Rotich, Elyne; Kisuya, Job; Sang, Edwin; Maurer, Toby; Wools-Kaloustian, Kara; Kambugu, Andrew; Martin, Jeffrey; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Rapid case ascertainment (RCA) refers to the expeditious and detailed examination of patients with a potentially rapidly fatal disease shortly after diagnosis. RCA is frequently performed in resource-rich settings to facilitate cancer research. Despite its utility, RCA is rarely implemented in resource-limited settings and has not been performed for malignancies. One cancer and context that would benefit from RCA in a resource-limited setting is HIV-related Kaposi sarcoma (KS) in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: To determine the feasibility of RCA for KS, we searched for all potential newly diagnosed KS among HIV-infected adults attending three community-based facilities in Uganda and Kenya. Searching involved querying of electronic medical records, pathology record review, and notification by clinicians. Upon identification, a team verified eligibility and attempted to locate patients to perform RCA, which included epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory measurements. Results: We identified 593 patients with suspected new KS. Of the 593, 171 were ineligible, mainly because biopsy failed to confirm KS (65%) or KS was not new (30%). Among the 422 remaining, RCA was performed within 1 month for 56% of patients and within 3 months for 65% (95% confidence interval: 59 to 70%). Reasons for not performing RCA included intervening death (47%), inability to contact (44%), refusal/unsuitable to consent (8.3%), and patient re-location (0.7%). Conclusions: We found that RCA - an important tool for cancer research in resource-rich settings - is feasible for the investigation of community-representative KS in East Africa. Feasibility of RCA for KS suggests feasibility for other cancers in Africa.
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    First-Line Antiretroviral Treatment Failure in East African Children
    (East African Medical Association, 2021) Marete, Irene; Mwangi, Ann; Brown, Steven; Wools-Kaloustian, Kara; Yiannoutsos, Constantin; Abuogi, Lisa; Lyamuya, Rita; Ngonyani, Kapella; Achieng, Marion; Apaka, Cosmas; Rotich, Elyne; Ayaya, Samuel; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Objectives: To describe the incidence of antiretroviral treatment failure and associated factors in a pediatric clinical cohort within the East African International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (EA-IeDEA) consortium. Design: A retrospective cohort study. Clinical treatment failure was defined as advancement in clinical WHO stage, or CDC class at least 24 weeks after initiation of treatment. Immunological failure was defined as developing or returning to the following age-related immunological thresholds after at least 24 weeks on treatment; CD4 count of <200 or CD4%<10% for children aged 2-5 years and CD4 count of < 100 for a child aged > 5years. Setting: The study utilized the electronic medical records of HIV-infected pediatric patients enrolled into the EA-IeDEA consortium clinics from January 2005 to August 2012. Results: A total of 5927 children were included in the analysis. The estimated cumulative incidence of clinical ART treatment failure at one year and four years post ART initiation was11.5% and 31% respectively, while that of immunological treatment failure was at 3% and 22.5% respectively. The main factors associated with clinical failure were advanced clinical stage at ART-initiation, year started ART and residing in a rural area. Factors associated with immunological failure were male gender and age of the child at ART-initiation. Only 6% of those identified as having clinical treatment failure were switched to second line treatment during the four years of follow-up. Conclusion: The probability of clinical and immunologic failure was relatively high and increased with time.
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    Survival Following Diagnosis of HIV-Associated Kaposi Sarcoma Among Adults in East Africa in the "Treat-All" Era
    (medRxiv, 2024-08-28) Byakwaga, Helen; Semeere, Aggrey; Laker-Oketta, Miriam; Busakhala, Naftali; Freeman, Esther; Rotich, Elyne; Wenger, Megan; Kadama-Makanga, Philippa; Kisuya, Job; Semakadde, Matthew; Mwine, Bronia; Kasozi, Charles; Mwebesa, Bwana; Maurer, Toby; Glidden, David V.; Wools-Kaloustian, Kara; Kambugu, Andrew; Martin, Jeffrey; Dermatology, School of Medicine
    Background: Despite widespread access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the "Treat All" era, HIV-associated Kaposi sarcoma (KS) remains among the most common malignancies in sub-Saharan Africa. Survival after KS diagnosis has historically been poor in Africa, but knowledge whether survival has changed at the population level in the contemporary era has been limited by lack of community-representative surveillance and monitoring systems. Methods: We identified all adult persons living with HIV (PLWH) with a new diagnosis of KS made between 2016 and 2019 during outpatient or inpatient care at prototypical primary care-providing medical facilities in Kenya and Uganda using rapid case ascertainment. Participants were subsequently followed for vital status, including community tracking for those who became lost to follow-up. Findings: Among 411 participants with newly diagnosed KS, 71% were men, median age was 34 (IQR: 30 to 41) years, and 91% had ACTG T1 tumor extent. Over a median follow-up of 7.8 (IQR: 2.4 to 17.9) months, cumulative incidence of death (95% CI) at months 6, 12 and 18 were 34% (30% to 39%), 41% (36% to 46%) and 45% (40% to 51%), respectively. Having the highest number of anatomic sites (11 to 16) harboring KS lesions (hazard ratio 2.2 (95% CI: 1.3-3.8) compared to 1 to 3 sites) and presence of oral KS lesions (hazard ratio 2.2 (95% CI: 1.4-3.3)) were independently associated with higher mortality. Lower hemoglobin and CD4 count as well as higher plasma HIV RNA were also associated with higher mortality. Interpretation: Among PLWH with newly diagnosed KS in East Africa in the "Treat All" era, survival was poor and related to mucocutaneous extent of KS. The findings emphasize the need for better control of KS in Africa, including novel approaches for earlier detection, better linkage to oncologic care, and more potent therapy.