Ethnic Patterns of Cytologic Abnormalities in Cervical Smears in Suriname, a High-Risk Area for Cervical Cancer

Objective To determine the prevalence of cytologie abnormalities in cervical smears from women attending the first organized screening program in Suriname and to compare the prevalences in 4 Surinamese ethnicities with different cervical carcinoma incidences. Study Design Cervicnl scrapes were taken from women with 4 different ethnicities: Maroons, Amerindians, Javanese and Hindustani. Papanicolaou staining and cytologic screening were performed on 807 cervical smears. Results Cervical cytologic abnormalities were seen in 13.4%, of which 8.1% (62 of 764) had atypical changes, 2.6% (20 of 764) had mild and 2.6% (20 of 764) bad moderate and severe dysplasia/carchtoina in situ (CIS). The cytologic abnormalities varied between the ethnicities: 42.1% (83 of 197) in the Maroons and 2.3% (4 of 176), 5.0% (9 of 183) and 3.0% (6 of 208) in the Javanese, Amerindians, and Hindustani, respectively. conclusion The high prevalence of'moderate and severe dysplasia/CIS in till ethnicities correlates with the high cervical carcinoma incidence in Suriname. A significantly higher prevalence of mild abnormalities in the Maroons as observed; it did not reflect the relatively low cervical cancer incidence in this ethnicity. However, this can be explained by the possibility that these women have a different sexual lifestyle, leading to a higher prevalence of transient HPV infection.