Gynaecological Malignancies Seen in a Tertiary Health Facility in Kano, Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: To establish the relative frequency, age distribution and histological patterns of the various gynaecological malignancies seen in Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital over a 5-year period. Methodology: Data related to socio-demographic variables, clinical and histopathology findings of patients with genital malignancies seen in the hospital between 1997 and 2001 were obtained. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the differences in the age distribution of the different histological types of malignancies. Results: A total of 152 cases were recorded. Cervical cancer, ovarian cancer and cancer of the corpus uteri constituted 90 (59.2%), 41 (27.0%) and 18 (11.8%) of the cases respectively, while cancer of the vulva 3 patients (2%) and vagina 1 patient (0.7%) were rarely seen. The ovarian cancers were predominantly of the epithelial type, with serous cystadenocarcinoma, mucinous cystadenocarcinoma and clear cell carcinoma, constituting 14 (35.5%), 9 (22.5%) and 1 (2.5%) of patients respectively. Granulosa-cell tumours accounted for 9 (22.5%) and sex cord stromal tumour 7 (17.5%) of patients. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean ages of patients with different gynaecological malignancies (F = 8.55; p < 0,0002) and between the mean ages of patients with epithelial cell tumours compared to those with germ cell tumours of the ovaries (t = 4.11, p < 0.003). Conclusions: The present study corroborates reports from other regions of Nigeria and developing countries, which show squamous cell cervical cancer as the most common gynaecological malignancy. Key Words: Genital Cancer, Malignancy, Frequency, Histology [Trop J Obstet Gynaecol, 2003, 20: 105-108]