Gynaecological Screening for Cervical and Vulvar Malignancies in a Cohort of Systemic Sclerosis Patients: Our Experience and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Background. Increased incidence of cancer was frequently reported in scleroderma (SSc), but no association with gynaecological malignancies was described in literature. Objectives. To investigate gynaecological neoplasms in SSc patients. Methods. In this cross-sectional analysis, we evaluated 80 SSc patients, living in the same geographical area. We considered all patients undergoing gynaecological evaluation, including pap test as screening for cervical cancer, between January 2008 and December 2014. Results. 55 (68.7%) patients were negative and 20 (25%) presented inflammatory alterations, while cancer or precancerous lesions were found in 5 (6.2%) cases (2 showed cervical cancer (one of them in situ), 1 vulvar melanoma, 1 vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia, and 1 endocervical polyp with immature squamous metaplasia). The frequency of cervical cancer in our series seems higher in comparison to the incidence registered in the same geographical area. The presence of atypical cytological findings correlated with anti-Scl70 autoantibodies (p = 0.022); moreover, the patients with these alterations tended to be older (median 65, range 46-67), if compared to the whole series (p = 0.052). Conclusions. A relatively high frequency of gynaecological malignancies was found in our SSc series. In general, gynaecological evaluation for SSc women needs to be included in the routine patients' surveillance.