Prevalence and demographic Features of Vulvar Cancer in Saint Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Ethiopia
Abstract
Background: Vulvar cancer is the fourth most common gynecologic malignancy with prevalence around 4% worldwide(S. Nishio et al., 2019). The prevalence is on the increase and late presentation calls for concern. However, in SPHMMC no specific study on the incidence of vulvar cancers has been conducted at the moment.
Objectives: This work is aimed to study the incidence and characteristics of patients with this cancer within the study period in view of the changing pattern.
Methodology: This is a retrospective study of histologically diagnosed gynecological cancers seen in our gynecologic oncologic unit between January 2016 and December 2020 GC, over five-year period. The records of the patients were retrieved from our Gynecologic oncology register and the histopathology laboratory. Then the incidence of vulvar cancer was computed and the frequency distribution of demographic features patients with this cancer were determined using SPSS version of 25. HIV positive vulvar cancer patients were compared with those negative patients.
Results: There were a total of 2055 gynaecological malignancies over the study period and vulvar cancer accounted for 63 (3.1%) of all the gynecological cancers. Their ages ranged from 18 to 80 years with a mean of 43.6 years. More than half (57.1%) of patients had concomitant HIV/AIDS infection. The average age at diagnosis of vulvar cancer in HIV-positive patients is a decade lower than in seronegative patients (39.3 years vs 49.8 years). Women living with HIV are twelve times more likely to get vulvar cancer at young age (<45 years) compared to women without HIV (adjusted odd ratio (OR) =12.4,95%CI: 3.6-42.7,P=0.0001).
Conclusion: The incidence of vulvar cancer in this hospital is comparable to other reports.in this study, it was noted that there is an association between HIV/AIDS and vulvar cancer, as previously reported.