Cervical Cancer epidemiological analysis in a tertiary health care service in Ceará – Brazil

Abstract

A descriptive and epidemiological study developed at Ceará Cancer Hospital, aimed at identifying the socio-demographic profile of patients diagnosed with cervical cancer, in the period of 2000 to 2002, as well as analyzing the tumor characteristics and the types of treatment that they were submitted to. The medical registers of 1085 women treated in the institution with cervical cancer diagnosis were studied. Data was collected at the Hospital Cancer Register Information System – SIS-RHC (Sistema de Informações do Registro Hospitalar de Câncer). The results showed that 65.3% of the women attended at the institution with cervical cancer were in the age group of 40 to 69 years old. In reference to the instruction degree, 74.2% were illiterates or had only incomplete basic education, being domestic-servant the most frequent profession (62.2%). The main diagnosis method employed was the tumor histopatology (98.9%). More than half of those patients presented the tumor at the II and III stadium, 24.5% and 28.9%, respectively. The treatment that was most applied was the radiotherapy (39.7%). The patients, in the study, had a low scholarship level and an advanced tumor stadium at the moment of the diagnosis, thus reducing the possibilities of cure and lifetime. The results suggest the need of reorganizing the screening programs, by means of implanting actions that lead to the early disease detection and of its precursory lesions, thus diminishing the incidence and the mortality of the cervical cancer in our environment.