Recent trends in histopathological spectrum of malignancies among females in western Maharashtra

Introduction: Aim of this study is to evaluate the histopathological spectrum of female malignancies with a motive to understand the prevalent trends of this complex disease. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective and prospective study carried over a period of three years. All female patients with histopathologically confirmed malignancies were included in the study. Result: Total of 1016 cases of malignant lesions were included of which majority were in age group of 40 to 69 years. Breast was the commonest site for primary malignancies followed by cervix. Oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma ranked third while colorectal carcinomas emerged as the fourth most prevalent malignancy followed by ovarian cancer. Infiltrating duct carcinoma of the breast was the commonest histopathologic type of malignancy. Majority of the cervical and oropharyngeal cancers were squamous cell type. Colorectal adenocarcinoma was the most common malignancy in the GI tract. Among skin malignancies, squamous cell carcinoma were the most prevalent type followed by basal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma. Adenocarcinomas were the commonest lung lesions while papillary carcinoma was the most prevalent thyroid malignancy. Transitional cell cancers were the most frequent urinary bladder lesions while renal cell carcinomas were most common kidney malignancy. Conclusion: In spite of many recently developed diagnostic modalities; histopathological examination remains the gold standard for the diagnosis of malignant lesions. Hospital based Cancer Registries should be established since they provide data which can prove to be an invaluable tool to understand and plan effective remedial measures in the battle against cancer.