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A Thirty-year Review of Vulvar Cancer in Jamaica, 1978 to 2007

Issue: 
DOI: 
10.7727/wimj.2013.125
Pages: 
134–7
 
ABSTRACT
 
Objective: To evaluate the trends in vulvar cancer between 1978 and 2007 in Kingston and St Andrew, Jamaica, with respect to age-standardized rates and histologic types.
 
Methods: All cases of vulvar cancer recorded in the Jamaica Cancer Registry from 1978 to 2007 were extracted and analysed for age distribution and histologic type.
 
Results: There were 78 cases (one person of unknown age) of vulvar cancer recorded over the 30-year period. Sixty per cent of the affected patients were between 50 and 80 years old. The most common histologic type of vulvar malignancy was squamous cell carcinoma (82%). There was a decline in age-standardized incidence rates of both vulvar cancers overall and vulvar squamous cell carcinoma over the 30-year period.
 
Conclusion: Squamous cell carcinoma is the most common vulvar malignancy in the Jamaican population, and affects primarily older women. Despite high prevalence rates of high-risk human papillomavirus infection, no increase in the age-standardized incidence of vulvar squamous cell carcinoma was identified.
 
Accepted: 
30 Jul, 2013
PDF Attachment: 
e-Published: 11 Apr, 2014
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