Cervical Cancer in Latin America

Across Latin America as a whole, the GLOBOCAN database estimates that 72,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and 33,000 will die from the disease (Ferlay et al 2004).  However, these are likely to be highly conservative estimates of the burden of cervical cancer across Latin America, as it is thought that many cases go undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or unreported (Arrossi et al 2003).

(Reference: Ferlay et al 2004)

The prevalence of cervical cancer varies across Latin America.  For example, the 1-year prevalence in Haiti is 53.4 women per 100,000.

The figures are also high in Bolivia (35.3 per 100,000) and Columbia (26.1 per 100,000).  In contrast, cervical cancer is less prevalent in Brazil (18.6 women per 100,000), Argentina (21.4 per 100,000) and Costa Rica (16.0 per 100,000).  However, all these figures are still higher than the global average of 12.4 per 100,000 (derived from Ferlay et al 2004).

The disparities in the prevalence of cervical cancer across Latin America are unlikely to be due to differences in the prevalence of HPV infection, as this is thought to be similar between Columbia and Costa Rica (Molano et al 2002; Herrero et al 2000).  These differences are more likely to be a result of insufficient coverage and frequency of cervical screening in countries with higher prevalences, compounded by incomplete follow-up of women after the test (Arrossi et al 2003).

The highest age-standardised incidence of cervical cancer is also seen in countries such as Haiti (87.3 cases per 100,000 women per year), Bolivia (55.0 per 100,000) and Columbia (36.4 per 100,000), with the lowest rates in countries such as Brazil (23.4 per 100,000), Argentina (23.2 per 100,000) and Costa Rica (21.5 per 100,000) (Ferlay et al 2004).

(Reference: Ferlay et al 2004)

Mortality rates across Latin America show a similar pattern, with high age-standardised rates of deaths from cervical cancer in Haiti (48.1 deaths per 100,000 women per year), Bolivia (30.4 per 100,000) and Columbia (18.2 per 100,000), and lower rates in Brazil (10.2 per 100,000), Argentina (7.8 per 100,000) and Costa Rica (12.0 per 100,000).  Geographical trends in mortality due to cervical cancer across Latin America reflect those for prevalence and incidence, and regional variations are again most likely due to the availability and extent of cervical screening (Arrossi et al 2003).

^ back to top