[Descriptive epidemiology of cancers in Cote d'Ivoire]

The cancerous disease is a real pain in developed countries due to the ageing of the population. According to the World Report Cancer in 2000, cancer tends to be a major problem of public health in the developing nations. This study research aimed at describing the epidemiological features of cancers in Cote d'Ivoire. It is a 26-year retrospective and descriptive study focusing on all cancers confirmed histologically by using the data from the registers of Anatomic Pathology laboratory of Abidjan teaching hospitals. The parameters of the study were frequency, age, sex, site and histological type. We obtained 12,841 cancers within patients aged from 2 months to 107 years old along with 51.26-year median age and 0.9 as sex-ratio. The most important cancer locations are cervix (17.41%) followed by skin (15.81%), prostate (7.73%), breast (6.88%), and stomach (6.09%). With women, the median age was 49.23 years, and the most common cancers were cervical cancer (33.25%) followed by breast cancer (12.44%) and skin cancer (10.50%). With men, the median age was 53.95 years, and the most frequent cancers were skin cancer (21.29%) followed by prostate cancer (15.69%) and stomach cancer (8.71%). Burkitt lymphoma (33.95%), retinoblastoma (10.92%) and nephroblastoma (5.88%) are the most important cancers in children. Cancers are frequent in Cote d'Ivoire. Cervical cancer, skin cancer, and prostate are updated problems with a worse prognosis. Therefore, the screening and the early diagnosis remain the best conditions to improve the prognosis of cancer.