Cervical Adenocarcinoma and Squamous Cell CarcinomaIncidence Trends among Tunisian Women

Introduction: Uterine cervix cancer is an important public health problem in Tunisia. In this study, we reporttrends in the incidence of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix uteri in the central regionof Tunisia during 1993-2006. Design: Data were obtained from the Cancer Registry of the Center of Tunisiawhich registers invasive cancer cases by active methods. Five-year age-specific rates, crude incidence rates (CR),world age-standardized rates (ASR), percent change (PC) and annual percent change (APC) were calculatedusing annual population data.
Results: Among all women cancers, cervix uteri cancer accounted for 5.9% andranked the fourth during the study period with an ASR of 6.9 per 100,000. The ASRs decreased notably with anAPC of -6.7% over the whole period. However, incidence rates of adenocarcinomas have increased during thelast years (APC: +14.4%).
Conclusion: The introduction of cytological screening programs has led to a markeddecrease of the incidence rates of cervix uteri cancer among Tunisian women. The data underline the fact thatthe population-based cancer registry is an indispensable tool for providing data for planning and evaluation ofprograms for cancer control.