Cancer of the genital organs and breast in women in Mexico City
Carrada Bravo, T.
Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana. Pan American Sanitary Bureau 102(2): 125-131
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0030-0632 PMID: 2950896 Document Number: 299654
A study was made of the incidence of malignant genital and breast cancers in women in Mexico City during 1983 by frequency, anatomical location, patient age, treating health institutions, and histological type. The most frequent tumor was carcinoma of cervix uteri (22.2%) followed by that of the breat (11.0%), the uterus exclusive of the cervix (2.6%) and ovary (2.6%), the vulva and vagina (1.0%), and the placenta (0.1%). Breast, cervical, and uterine neoplasms were infrequent before the 24th year; conversely, 16.3% of the ovarian tumors occurred before that age. Tumors of the ovary and cervix predominated in the age group from 25 to 34 years (13.1% and 11.4%, respectively). Cervical cancer was most frequent in women 35 to 44 years old (23.8%). Uterine cancer predominated in the group from 45 to 54 years with 26.3%, which rose to 41.7% in women 55 and older. Hospitals of the Mexican Social Security Institute and the Secretariat for Health each accounted for 35.8% and 35.5% of the cases, respectively, leaving 14.0% treated in hospitals of the Institute of Social Security and Social Services for Government Workers, 7.9% in private hospitals and 5.9% in other institutions. The most frequent histologic types were epidermoid carcinoma of cervix (89%), followed by adenocarcinoma of ovary (61%), of body of uterus (60%) and of breast (57%); neoplasms of germinal origin in the ovary (17%), and sarcomas of body of uterus (8%). It is concluded that the medical care burden of malignant tumors of the female genitalia and breast in Mexico could be considerably reduced by promoting continuing education, cancer research and the training of the health team, and by extending prevention campaigns to high-risk groups.