COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PRECEDING CYTOPATHOLOGICAL REPORTS AND WOMEN CERVICAL CANCER DIAGNOSES IN THE BRAZILIAN PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM

Introduction: Cervical cancer is a critical public health issue in Brazil. For this reason, the nations Ministry of Health has adopted a tracking method for this disease which consists of a cytology test an important exam for cervical cancer early detection, but which still presents low sensitivity. Objective: Identifying the frequency of cytology tests taking place before cervical cancer diagnosis. Method: An observational, analytical and retrospective study of a target population of 25 patients diagnosed with cervical neoplasia at Onco Hematos public health clinic located in the State of Sergipe, Brazil. Results: Out of the 25 patients in the study, 92% had squamous cell carcinoma prevalently in the 4554 age range. 72% had their Pap tests irregularly administered. 7 patients presented CIN and 17 were diagnosed with invasive cancer. Out of these last 17, nine were in clinical Stage I, three were in Stage II, and five were in Stage III. Their condition was locally advanced (Stages II and III) in 32% of the cases out of the 25. Conclusion: It has been observed that the inefficient public health system coverage offered to the target population of this research is still a problem in Brazil. Most of these patients tumors, according to this study, end up evolving into invasive ones. Moreover, although it is crucial in preventing the aforementioned pathology, the cytology test has high false-negative rates owing to its low sensitivity, which increases the need for complementary procedures such as the HPV DNA test.

 

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No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).

Publication History

Article published online:
23 October 2019