Search

Background: The study determined the pattern and distribution of gynaecological cancer cases seen at a university teaching hospital in southwest Nigeria over a 5-year period. Methodology: It was a 5-year retrospective review of all gynaecological cancer cases seen and managed at the hospital from 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2018. Results: A total of 6247 gynaecological admissions and 902 gynaecological cancers were seen in the hospital during the study period accounting for a proportion of 14.4%. Of these 902 cases, 835 (92.6%) women had their detailed records available for data extraction and analyses. Cervical cancer was the most commonly seen malignancy (61.7%). The mean age of the patients was 52.5 ± 12.4 years with the largest proportion of the women being in the age group of 50–59 years (26.9%). A large proportion (35.6%) of the patients had a parity of 5 or more with an overall median parity of 4 (IQR, 1–5) while the largest proportion (59.1%) were postmenopausal women. The highest mean age was seen in women with vulvar cancer (67.2 ± 0.6 years) while the lowest was in those with sarcoma botryoides (12.3±1.01 years). Conclusion: There was a steady annual increase in the number of gynaecological cancer cases at the hospital during the period under review. The most common cancers seen in this study are associated with advanced age, increased parity and postmenopausal status. There is a need for improved public enlightenment on the importance of routine screening and for consistent government policy on the institution of an effective organised screening programme for cervical cancer.

Background: There is conflicting evidence regarding the survival benefit of interval debulking surgery (IDS) compared to conventional treatment with primary debulking surgery (PDS) in women with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC)., Objectives: We compared the survivals following PDS followed by adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT) versus IDS after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in women with advanced EOC at the gynaecological oncology unit of a tertiary referral centre in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria., Methods: The data of 126 women with advanced EOC who had standard treatment with either PDS and ACT or NACT and IDS between January 2008 and December 2017 were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier estimates of progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) time stratified by the types of upfront debulking surgery were calculated and compared by employing the log-rank test statistics. Cox proportional hazard models were then used to estimate hazard ratios of the association between the type of surgical debulking and survivals while adjusting for all necessary covariates., Results: We recorded no statistically significant differences in PFS (adjusted hazard ratio=1.28, 95% confidence interval 0.82-2.01, P=0.282) and OS (adjusted hazard ratio=1.23, 95% confidence interval 0.68-2.25, P=0.491) between IDS and PDS among women with advanced EOC., Conclusions: There is a need for a larger prospective multicenter study to further compare the impact of upfront surgical debulking types on the survival of women with advanced EOC in our setting. In the meantime, giving interval debulking surgery after a few courses of neoadjuvant chemotherapy should be an acceptable standard of care for women with advanced EOC., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest The authors have no conflicts of interest.