Histopathological studies of carcinoma of cervix uteri in Ibadan

Carcinoma of the cervix is by far the commonest gynecologic malignancy in Ibadan. In a histopathologic study of the disease, 93.9% of all the cases were found to be of the squamous cell carcinoma variety while 6.1% were of the adenocarcinoma group. It was found that most patients with the well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma were above the age of 45 years in contrast to the undifferentiated carcinoma. Even though the difference was not statistically significant, it was speculated that cervical cancer manifesting itself before the age of 45 years may be more aggressive than that occurring in older women. Similarly, it was shown that increasing age, more frequent marriages and parity may augment the possibilities, at least in the negro population, of a woman developing adenocarcinoma of the cervix.