Publication:

Study of clinical profile of cervical cancer patients: a hospital based study

Background As a consequence of growing and ageing populations, developing countries are disproportionately affected by the increasing number of cancers. Though the situation in India is gradually improving there still exists a disparity between the availability of quality cancer care. With this view, the present study was planned to undertake in this tertiary care institute to find out symptoms, clinical staging, complications and management of cases of carcinoma of cervix.

Methods This was a prospective observational study of carcinoma of cervix carried out at a tertiary care hospital catering services to the people of Maharashtra and neighbouring states. A thorough history including presenting complaints, demographic details, educational status and occupational details, details of menstrual and obstetric history along with any significant past history were recorded on a standard proforma.

Results Most common symptom was per vaginal bleeding which was found in 29 (69.04%). In the present study almost two third of cases i.e. 28 (66.6%) had advanced stage (IIB, III, IV) at the time of admission while the number of cases diagnosed at early stage were only 14 (33.3%). For Wertheim’s hysterectomy, most commonly used approach was transperitoneal 08 (61.53%) while 05 (38.46%) were operated by extraperitoneal approach. Pelvic lymph nodes were positive in 03 (23.07%).

Conclusions A high proportion of patients presented in stages III and IV. This emphasizes the need for early detection of Gynecological cancers in our population. Accordingly, the importance of detection of the pre-clinical stage of the diseases by considering the possibility of initiating cost-effective screening measures needs to be emphasized.