Epidemiological and clinical presentation of cervical cancer patients at the Yaoundé Gynaeco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital: a retrospective study

Abstract

Introduction: Cervical cancer persists as a health burden, especially in developing nations despite being preventable. Our objective was to establish the epidemiologic profile and clinical presentation of patients with cervical cancer at the Yaounde Gynaeco
Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital.

Methods: We carried out a seven - year retrospective cross-sectional study from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2021. We reviewed files of all patients treated for cancer at the Gynaecologic Unit of the Yaounde Gynaeco-Obstetric and Paediatric Hospital (YGOPH)
and recruited all patients with a histopathology diagnosis of cervical cancer. A pretested data extraction sheet aimed at collecting information from the inpatient records was used as the study instrument. We collected sociodemographic data, the presenting symptoms and the histological type of cancer. The collected data were entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.

Results: Cervical cancer was the most prevalent cancer (n=243, 65.1%) among all the gynaecologic cancers. The average age of the patients was 53(SD±10.9) years. The most represented age group was 50-59 years (35.2%). Most of these patients were housewives (33.7%). The mean parity of the patients was 5.6±2.3. Abnormal vaginal bleeding was the primary presenting symptom (85.6%), Most of the patients were diagnosed at Stage 3 of the disease (33.7%). Only 2.1% of the patients had undergone cervical cancer screening prior to diagnosis. Squamous cell carcinoma was the predominant histological type (86.3%).

Conclusion: These findings underscore the urgent need for improved cervical cancer prevention strategies, particularly for underserved populations.