GENITAL TRACT MALIGNANCIES IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN

Authors

  • Farkhunda Khursheed
  • Nasreen Jatoi
  • Chandra Madhu Das

Abstract

Background: The most common malignancy in women is breast carcinoma. The next commoncancer is genital tract malignancies which constitute 14% of cancers in women. Objective of thisstudy was to determine the type and frequency of genital tract malignancy in postmenopausalwomen and to find the age distribution of genital tract malignancies. Methods: This descriptivecross sectional study was conducted in Department of Obstetrics ad Gynaecology Unit-II atLiaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro. All postmenopausal women,admitted in the unit due to various pathologies (abdominal masses, bleeding P/V etc.) fromJanuary 2005 to December 2007 were included in the study. Clinical evaluation and investigationswere done on all patients. Those women who had benign diseases were excluded from the study.Malignancy was confirmed from histopathology report of biopsy specimen. These women weredivided into 3 age groups: group I <60 years, group II 60 to 70 years and group III >70 years.Results: Out of 265 postmenopausal women admitted in ward during the study period,malignancy was confirmed in 68 cases (25.66%). The type of malignancy was cervical carcinoma(41, 60.28%), ovarian carcinoma (11, 16.17%), endometrial carcinoma (8, 11.76%), vulvalcarcinoma (5, 7.35%) vaginal carcinoma (2, 2.94%), and leiomyosarcoma of uterus (1, 1.47%).Increased frequency of cervical and endometrial carcinomas were seen in Group-I cases, whilevulval carcinoma was seen more commonly in Group-II cases (p=0.004). Conclusion: A veryhigh frequency of cervical carcinoma was seen in our patients. There is need for more publicawareness to integrate routine Gynae-Pap screening.Keywords: Postmenopausal, female genital tract, malignancy, frequency, types, women,carcinoma, Pap smear

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Published

2010-09-01

Issue

Vol. 22 No. 3 (2010): JOURNAL OF AYUB MEDICAL COLLEGE, ABBOTTABAD

Section

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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