IMR Press / EJGO / Volume 40 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.12892/ejgo4447.2019
Open Access Original Research
Gynaecological malignancies at a tertiary care centre in Mozambique
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1 Department of Pathology, Maputo Central Hospital, Maputo, Mozambique
2 Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique
3 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique
4 Centro de Investigaçao em Saude de Manhiça (CISM), Maputo, Mozambique
5 Department of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, Hospital Clinic, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
6 ISGlobal, Barcelona Ctr. Int. Health Res. (CRESIB), Hospital Clínic - Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
7 Department of Pathology, Hospital Clinic, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Eur. J. Gynaecol. Oncol. 2019, 40(2), 295–299; https://doi.org/10.12892/ejgo4447.2019
Published: 10 April 2019
Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of gynaecological cancers over an 18-year-period in Mozambique a country located in South Eastern sub-Saharan Africa, an area in which comprehensive statistics on cancer are limited. Materials and Methods: Retrospective review of the pathological records of gynaecological cancers at the Maputo Central Hospital from January 1991 to December 2008. Results: 3,726 gynaecological cancers were reported. Malignant neoplasms of the uterine cervix (64.0% of all tumours) were the most frequent cancers, followed by breast (23.2%), vulvar-vaginal (4.1%), ovarian cancers (3.8%), cancers of the uterine corpus (3.3%), and gestational choriocarcinoma (1.7%). Tumours of the uterine cervix, vulva/vagina, uterine corpus, and ovary increased in number three times, whereas breast cancers increased five times during the study period. Conclusions: Malignant tumours related to human papillomavirus (HPV) accounted for over two-thirds of all malignancies. Screening for cervical cancer and vaccination against HPV should be a health priority in sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords
Gynaecological cancer
Cervical cancer
Human papillomavirus
Sub-Saharan Africa
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