[Clinical and histopathologic studies of primary glandular cancer of the uterine cervix. An analysis of 78 cases from 1972 to 1984].

In the period between 1972 and 1984 716 cervical carcinomas, of which 78 were glandular cancers, were diagnosed at the University Hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf. The incidence of invasive adenocarcinomas of the cervix is 10.9%. When compared with a study published in 1949 (19) the incidence of adenocarcinoma has risen from 3% to 10.9%. In the period of observation, i.e., from 1972 to 1984, no trend to an increase in incidence was observed. The average age of the patients, 62.6 years, is relatively high in comparison with other studies. An earlier onset of disease has not been observed. The available data do not provide any evidence of connection between the use of oral contraceptives and later development of an adenocarcinoma. The five-year survival rate for all stages taken together was 40.4%. The five-year survival rate, and thus the prognosis for glandular carcinomas of the cervical glands, depends primarily on the clinical stage of the disease, though also on the histological type and the degree of differentiation of the tumor.