Profile of gynecological cancers in a tertiary hospital, Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: there is a great diversity in the profile of cancers in the world. This study set out to analyze the profile of gynecological cancer in Federal University Teaching Hospital, Owerri, [FUTHO] (former Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria).

Methods: this was a retrospective cross sectional descriptive study of the records of women admitted in the gynecological ward in FUTHO from January 2020 to November 2022. It was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0 and reported in simple percentages for categorical variables and measures of central tendency for quantitative variables.

Results: a total of 1,378 gynecological patients were admitted into the Gynaecological ward of the hospital, out of which 242 (17.6%) were cancer cases. The most common cancer over the three years in review, was ovarian, 81 (33.5%), followed by cervical, 66 (27.3%), endometrial, 65 (26.8%), choriocarcinoma, 22 (9.1%), vulvar, 6 (2.5%) and vagina, 2 (0.8%). The most common gynecological cancers in this study is very different from previous reports from Nigeria and other African countries. The pattern looks like that seen in developed countries where endometrial and ovarian cancers top the list.

Conclusion: this report shows a possible change in lifestyle and improved access to cervical cancer prevention strategies. It is also assumed that all the facilities who have recorded cervical cancer as the most common cancer can actually have a similar result as ours if a more current review is done.