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Article History

Received: 16 December 2024

Accepted: 21 April 2025

First Online: 28 April 2025

Declarations

:

: This study was part of the PhD work, which was approved by the Doctoral Committee and Higher Degrees Research and Ethics Committee of the School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University for the corresponding author (SBS-HDREC-630). Final approval of this research study was obtained from the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (HS-2574). Written informed consent was obtained from prospective participants included in the study before completing the Data Extraction Form. All the data and specimens pertaining to the research were kept confidential. For the retrospective arm of the study, data were abstracted from the case files in the respective hospitals. Therefore, a waiver of consent was obtained from the Higher Degrees Research and Ethics Committee, School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, to access the data and perform the experiments on the tissue block samples. The patient data, which were accessed from the medical case files in the respective hospitals, were anonymized and maintained with confidentiality. The conduct of the study was in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.