Age patterns of Tswana women with carcinoma of the cervix.

We report the results of the cervical cytology studies done on 6 756 initial smears of Tswana women in the newly established cytology laboratory at Ga-Rankuwa Hospital. We have detected a high incidence of positive smears (31 per 1 000), a figure which is among the highest in the recorded literature. We also emphasize that the age patterns (profiles) of Tswana women with carcinoma of the cervix present a shift to the left in comparison with results of similar studies in Black or White population groups, and that there is immense benefit to be gained by the expansion of cytology laboratories.