Incidence of Cervical Cancer in Calabar, Nigeria

Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the incidence of cervical cancer among women living in Calabar.

Place and Duration of Study: Calabar cancer registry, May to June 2015.

Methodology: Data of cervical cancer diagnosed between 1st of January 2004 and 31st December 2013 and stored in the Calabar cancer registry were accessed and fed into spss version 21 for analysis. Important data captured included the patients age, sex, place domiciled within last one year, whether rural or urban dwelling, date of incidence as well as topography and morphology of the cervical cancer. Other gynaecological cancers outside the cervix were excluded as well as all other cancers occurring in females outside cervical cancer. The data so captured was subjected to statistical analysis.

Results: One hundred and thirty (130) cases of cervical cancer were recorded during this period Mean (SD) age of female cases was 44.6 (10.2) years, ranging from 30 to 76 years. There appears to be a fairly steady decrease in the mean age at diagnosis, especially in the later years. The crude incidence, adjusted rate and age specific incidence were, 17 per `100,000, 15 per 100,000 and 20 per 100,000 respectively.

Within the 5-year period from 2004 to 2008, there was an average annual decrease in incidence rate of 9.4% (95% CI: 3.8%-11.2%). However, within the 5-year period from 2009 to 2013, there was an average annual increase in incidence rate of 12.1%% (95%CI: 2.31% to 14.4%).

Conclusion: Cervical cancer is common in Calabar effort must be redoubled towards public health measures that will bring about reduction in its incidence. This is because cervical cancer is the most easily preventable cancer.