[Epidemiology of cancer in Hospital de Ginecoobstetricia, Centro Médico Nacional de Occidente].

Objective: To describe the epidemiological profile of malignant gynecological tumors in a third-level referral medical center located in Western Mexico.

Material And Methods: Cross sectional study. We took the register of patients with cancer confirmed histopathologically at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Hospital, Western National Medical Center. The results are presented as frequencies, means and standard deviations.

Results: We captured 1025 medical charts from patients with cancer between January 1981 and May 2003. Mean age was 51.55 years with 16 to 94 years range. Breast cancer was the most prevalent disease (67.5%) with predominance of the left breast. Bilateral disease was identified in patients 10 years younger than those with unilateral disease. Cervix cancer was the second most common disease (17.2%), followed by ovarian cancer (91 cases; 8.8%), endometrium cancer (44 cases, 4.2%). Clinical stages were II and III in 87% of cases with breast cancer. Stages I and II in 81% of patients with cancer of the cervix, stage III in 39.5% of cases with ovarian carcinoma and stage III in 58% of patients with endometrial carcinoma.

Conclusions: Breast cancer was the first condition of medical care and detected in clinical stages II and III. Cervix was the second even with suboptimal registers. Ovarian cancer was detected in advanced stages in the majority of patients. It is important to register all patients with gynecologic cancer in only one referral hospital in order to obtain better attention. In this way, strategies for medical management improvement could be established. Long-term prognosis of patients may improve.