Cervical Cancer in a Tertiary Hospital in South-South, Nigeria: A 5-Year Review

Background: Cervical cancer is the most common gynaecological cancer in developing countries. The World Health Organisation estimated that there were about 570,000 new cases of cancer of the cervix in 2018 and about 311,000 women died of the disease.

Objective: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of patients with cervical cancer at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study which involved all the patients with histologically confirmed cervical cancer managed at the gynaecological unit of the hospital from 1st January, 2016 to 31st December, 2020. Information was extracted from the gynaecological records and entered into a predesigned proforma. All available data were retrospectively analysed with SPSS version 23.0, and results were presented in tables and frequencies.

Results: There were 31 cases of cervical cancers out of the 2,478 gynaecological cases seen. The prevalence of cervical cancer was 1.25%. About one-third of the women were in the sixth decade of life (32.3%). About half of the women were diagnosed at Stage 2 of the disease (51.6%) and squamous cell carcinoma accounted for 80.6% of the cancers. Radiotherapy was the most used treatment option (64.5%). About one-quarter died (25.8%).

Conclusion: Most of the patients in this study presented in the advanced stages of the disease, with death of about one-quarter of them. Prevention and early presentation to the hospital are key in the prevention of poor quality of life and deaths. All hands must be on deck to tackle this disease.