Genital tract malignancies in Trinidad

RESUMO

In Trinidad, genital tract malignancy is the leading cause of death and the commonest of all female cancers, constituting 38.9 per cent of all malignant neoplasms. This clinico-pathological study comprised 82 patients who were diagnosed as having a genital organ malignancy at the Mount Hope Womens Hospital, during a five-year period between November, 1981 and Octuber, 1986. The malignancies were categorized by site and broad-type, baed on the SixthInternational Classification of Disseases. Carcinoma of the cervix was the commonest malignancy (62.2) after the age of 25. It was 3.2 times more frequemt than corpus uteri cancer, and the mean age at presentation was 54.4 years. Endometrial carcinoma was found only in postmenopausal patients presenting with bleeding at a higher mean age of 63.2 years (0.05>p>.02). Diabetes mellitus, obesity and hypertension were more commonly associated with endometrial carcinoma than with carcinoma of the cervix, but only hypertension significantly so (.01>p>.001. There was no significant difference in the incidence in both major ethinic groups in endometrial and cervical carcinma. However, only one Muslim patient had a genital tract cancer (p < .05). Forty-four per cent of our patients with Stage I cervical carcinoma were in the reproductive age group