Presentation patterns of invasive cancer of the cervix: results from Parirenyatwa Oncology and Radiotherapy Centre, Harare, Zimbabwe 1998-2010

Abstract

Cancer of the uterine cervix is the second most common cancer among women worldwide with a high incidence in Sub-Saharan Africa.1 In developing countries such as Zimbabwe invasive cancer of the cervix (CaCx) is the most common cancer in females and also the leading cause of cancer related deaths in women.2 The American Cancer Society3 estimated that 12.710 million new cases of invasive CaCx were going to be diagnosed in 2011 and about 4.290 million women were going to die with invasive CaCx. The same author reported that there is a significant decrease in incidence and mortality rate of invasive CaCx in developed countries over the past three decades as compared to the developing countries. This was attributed to available options of disease prevention with the possibility of early diagnosis of the disease due to effective screening and accessibility to effective treatment procedures in developed countries. To this end it has been noted that women living in developed countries have a 208% greater chance of being successfully treated when compared with women in less developed countries.