A review of the the clinico-pathological presentation of cervical cancer in Ilorin, Nigeria.

Abstract

e15516 Background: Cervical cancer is a public health problem in developing countries. The aim of this study is to review the clinical and histopathological presentation of cervical cancer in Ilorin, Nigeria. Methods: The medical records of all histologically confirmed cervical cancer managed at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital from January 2000 to December 2009 were retrieved and analyzed. Results: There were 213 cases of cervical cancer managed in the hospital over this period. Their mean age was 55.2 years (±13.8; range 23-92). More than half of them (63%) were more than 50 years of age and the highest prevalence was in the age group 50-57 (26.8%). The mean parity was 6.7 (±2.4; range 0-13). Most of the women (87.9%) were grandmultiparous and 98.8% were currently married. The main clinical symptoms were irregular vaginal bleeding (76.7%,) vaginal discharge (36.5%) and post coital bleeding (23.3%). About 32.4% had more than 1 symptom. About 15.6% reported to the hospital within the first month of onset of symptoms. While 88.6% presented with advanced stage disease, stage IIIB was the most common stage (54.3%) of the disease at presentation. Squamous cell carcinoma was the commonest type of malignancy found in this study 196 (92%) while adenocarcinoma formed only 2.8%. The Large cell Keratinised histologic variant is the commonest squamous cell carcinoma type (45.2%) closely followed by the Large cell non-keratinized. All the patients were referred to a center that could offer radiotherapy. Conclusions: Cervical cancer is still a very serious problem in developing countries including Nigeria. The importance of this review cannot be overemphasized because it serves as a reminder to all stakeholders in cervical cancer prevention that this disease is still killing women in the developing countries. It also serves as an advocacy tool to all that making cervical cancer prevention strategies available and affordable to the developing countries is a top priority issues. And to the scientific community, it is still a challenge that a simple and affordable method of preventing cervical cancer must be made available as soon as possible.