The descriptive and epidemiological characteristics of cervical cancer

Abstract

Cervical cancer has long been a serious public health issue, both locally and worldwide. Efforts to control this disease should encompass prevention, as well as early detection and treatment, but also meticulous record-keeping and follow-up monitoring of affected women. In order to efficiently combat the disease, all of the above conditions must be met simultaneously. The goal of this article is to provide a layout of the fundamental descriptive and epidemiological characteristics of both cervical cancer patients and deaths resulting from the disease in Serbia, Europe and worldwide. We will pay special attention to a detailed epidemiological report on Central Serbia from 1999 to 2011. The article utilizes the approach of descriptive epidemiology to compound the knowledge about the disease, its incidence, and outcomes. The presented data was gathered from Globocan, a cancer surveillance database developed by the WHO, as well as the Cancer Registry of Central Serbia (for the aforementioned time period). There were 527624 new cases reported globally in 2012, corresponding to a standardized incidence ratio of 14,0 per 100000 women. Mortality-wise, there were 265653 deaths recorded in 2012, yielding a standardized mortality ratio of 6.8 per 100000 women. In other words, on average, every two minutes a woman dies of cervical cancer, totalling 720 cervical cancer mortalities per day. In Europe, there have been 58348 new cases in 2012 (11.44 per 100000 women), with 24378 deaths (3,75 per 100000 women). In Serbia, 1501 new cases were recorded in 2012 (23,8 per 100000 women), with 609 deaths (7,7 per 100000 women). These data make Serbia rank 62nd (out of 182 countries) in terms of incidence, and 84th in terms of mortality of cervical cancer, putting Serbia in the top half of the world on both criteria. According to the data supplied by the Cancer Registry of Central Serbia, the average standardized incidence ratio of 23.9/100000 women and the SMR of 7,2/100000 women in the evaluated time period point to an unfavorable epidemiological situation of this particular malignoma in Central Serbia. And while a deeper analysis of this interval reveals a slight drop in incidence of the disease in Central Serbia (y = 27,13-0,47x; p > 0,05, or roughly one new case fewer per 100000 women over the next two years), an increase in mortality is evident in the same period (y = 7.16+0,01x; p>0,05).