Cancer of the uterine cervix in a Korean biopsy series with a study of the age distribution in 1,889 cases of chronic cervicitis, dysplasia, intra-epithelial and invasive epidermoid carcinoma.

Abstract

Invasive cervical carcinoma is the most commonly observed primary form of cancer in Korean females. This tumour constituted 37.6% of 1820 malignant tumours of known primary site encountered in a Korean surgical series at the Scandinavian‐sponsored National Medical Center in Seoul from December 1958 to August 1967. The age at diagnosis of invasive cervical cancer averaged 43.6 years, and the estimated population peak incidence was also within the fifth decade. Ninety‐five per cent of the cases were of the epidermoid type; the range of age among patients with adenocarcinoma was significantly greater than in those with epidermoid cancer. The age distribution of 1889 cases of simple chronic cervicitis, squamous‐cell dysplasia, intra‐epithelial neoplasia and invasive epidermoid carcinoma is presented and discussed. The observations in 1033 cases of progressive epithelial abnormalities are consistent with a linear regression of age at diagnosis on histological grade of epithelial alterations ranging from slight dysplasia to late invasive epidermoid cancer. Such an interrelation constitutes one among several circumstantial pieces of evidence that the morphological evolution of invasive epidermoid carcinoma passes through a spectrum of epithelial abnormalities. The present results support this concept of a step‐wise progression in epidermoid cervical carcinogenesis.