Cytopathological screening in indigenous women from Parque Indigena do Xingu.

Over the years, there have been many deaths due to cervical cancer among indigenous women of the Parque Indigena do Xingu as a consequence of low screening coverage. Since 2005, however, the coverage index of cervical lesion screening has been high: 97.6% among at-risk women in 2005 and 92.6% in 2007. Cytological alterations occurred in 12.6% and 6% of the cases in the respective years. After complete diagnosis and treatment of uterine lesions, by staff trained in lower tract pathology, negative results were seen in all cases of high-grade lesions and invasive neoplasia and no case of invasive carcinoma was detected in 2007. We conclude, therefore, that health actions have been effective in decreasing the incidence of cytological alterations and invasive carcinoma.