Cancer of the cervix uteri, a preventable tumor

Cancer of the cervix uteri is the second most common cancer among women worldwide. About 86% of the cases occur in developing countries. Every 10 minutes, a woman in Africa dies from cervical cancer, despite the fact that almost every case is preventable through a programme of screening, treatment and vaccination against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). In Madagascar it is the most commonly detected malignancy in females with an incidence >45 cases / 100000 inhabitants per year. According to the African Oxford Foundation "Globally there are over 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer annually and in excess of 270,000 deaths, accounting for 9% of female cancer deaths. 85% of cases occur in developing countries and in Africa Mortality rates vary seventeen fold between the different regions of the world. Cervical cancer contributes over 2.7 million years of life lost among women between the ages of 25 and 64 worldwide, some 2.4 million of which occur in developing areas and only 0.3 million in developed countries. Africa has 9 times the incidence of cervical cancer compared to the USA and 24 times the mortality. Cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates have declined substantially in Western countries following the introduction of screening programmes. Screening programmes in Africa, are however, often rudimentary or non-existent. The vast majority of women who suffer cervical cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa present with disease advanced far beyond the capacity of surgery or other treatment modalities to offer cure. Palliative care services are very poorly developed and therefore these unfortunate women are sentenced to a miserable end of life.