Low survival of South African urban black women with cervical cancer

Abstract

In Soweto, Johannesburg, the incidence of cervical cancer, the most common cancer in black women, is higher than in most white populations but lower than in many other populations. In a series of 210 patients who were diagnosed in 1981 and 1982, 50% had died within 1.6 years of diagnosis, a third of the reported survival time in white patients. The pattern of stage at presentation was similar to, although sometimes later than, those reported for various white communities. Data on patients' age at birth of first child, parity, smoking practice, and socioeconomic status, differed little from those in a control group. Neither these factors, nor availability of medical services, could be correlated with the distressingly short period of survival, which also occurs among urban black patients with breast and oesophageal cancers. Presumably, unidentified factors linked with low socioeconomic status affect survival time.