The Pattern of Cervical Cancer according to HIV Status in Yaoundé, Cameroon

To analyze the epidemiological aspects of invasive cervical cancer according to HIV status.

This was an historical cohort study from January 2010 to April 2017 in three hospitals at the Yaoundé city Capital, Cameroon, after the National Ethics Committee' approval. We included invasive cervical cancers with documented HIV status. Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval were calculated to assess the association between the different variables and HIV status. Survival was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier. The level of significance was set up at <5%.

Among the overall 213 cervical cancer patients, 56 were HIV+ (24.67%). Factors associated with positive HIV status were age below 40 (OR: 2.03 (1.38-2.67)), celibacy (OR: 2.88 (1.58-4.17)), nonmenopausal status (OR: 2.56 (1.36-3.75)), low parity, primiparity (OR: 2.59 (1.43-3.74)), and for parity with 2-4 children (OR: 2.24 (1.35-3.12)). Concerning the HIV+ patients, tumor was diagnosed late (stages III-IV) (OR: 2.70 (1.43-5.08)), undifferentiated (grade III) (OR: 7.69 (5.80-9.57)), with low median survival (9.83 months vs. 20.10 months).

HIV is frequent among cervical cancer patients. In the HIV+ patients, the diagnosis was made at the advanced stage, cells were poorly differentiated, and the prognosis was worse.