Cervical Cancer Mortality in East-Central European Countries.

Cezary Wojtyla,Dariusz Kowalczyk,Michal Ciebiera,Grzegorz Panek

doi:10.3390/ijerph17134639

Abstract

Changes that took place in Europe in the early 1990s had an impact on health-associated issues. They were an impulse for the changes in healthcare systems and, consequently, also for the changes in cancer control programmes. Those changes also had an effect on mortality rates due to cervical cancer (CC). Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse CC mortality trends in east-central Europe after 1990. Data on deaths due to CC were retrieved from the WHO Mortality Database. Trends in east-central European countries between 1990 and 2017 were assessed using Joinpoint Regression Program software. CC mortality decreased in the majority of analysed countries. However, an increase was observed in Latvia and Bulgaria. Despite decreasing mortality in the majority of the analysed countries, significant differences were observed. In order to improve the epidemiological situation, effective early detection programmes for cervical cancer ought to be rearranged and based not only on pap smears but also on molecular methods, as well as on introducing widespread programmes of vaccination against HPV.

Highlights

Cervical cancer (CC) is the ninth most frequently diagnosed neoplastic disease in European women and the second most common tumour occurring in women aged 15–44 years [1]
It increased in Latvia and Bulgaria
The largest decreases in the mortality rate expressed as annual percentage change (APC) occurred in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia and were twice as high as the APC for EU10

Summary

Introduction

Cervical cancer (CC) is the ninth most frequently diagnosed neoplastic disease in European women and the second most common tumour occurring in women aged 15–44 years [1]. Significant differences occur between European countries in terms of the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. The region may be defined by the following countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine [1]. This regional division is geographically important, but it encompasses the countries belonging to the former Eastern Bloc, a system that had governed health policy for several decades very differently from Western Europe.

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