Age Specific Cytological Abnormalities in Women Screened for Cervical Cancer in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide, with about 500,000new cases and 270,000 deaths each year. Globally, it is estimated that over one million women currently havecervical cancer, most of whom have not been diagnosed, or have no access to treatment that could cure themor prolong their lives. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) cervical cancer is the third most common cancerin women. Materials and
Methods: A population-based cross-sectional retrospective survey of cervical smearabnormalities was conducted in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, from January 2013 to December 2013 bycollecting consecutive liquid-based cytology samples from the Department of Pathology at the SKMC Hospitalin Abu Dhabi city.
Results: The total number of women screened for cervical cancer for the year 2013 at SKMCwas 4,593, with 225 (4.89%) abnormal smears. The majority of the abnormal smear results were atypicalsquamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) 114 (2.48%). This study showed 60% increase in the rateof abnormal cervical smears in the UAE over the last 10 years. In this study the highest incidence of high gradeabnormalities were seen in women above the age of 61years (1.73%), this might be due to the fact that this groupof women missed the chance of screening of cervical cancer earlier in their lives or could be explained by thewell-known second peak of HPV infection seen in many prevalence studies.
Conclusions: We conclude that therate of abnormal cervical smear in the screened Abu Dhabi women is not different from the rate in developedcountries. A notable increase in both low and high grade abnormalities has occurred within the last decade.