Tamika and Friends, Inc.

The Facts

Cervical cancer is one of the few women’s cancers that can be prevented. It is slow-growing, and with regular and accurate screening, no woman should suffer or die from it. New and emerging technologies are giving us even more opportunities to wipe out this second-leading cause of cancer worldwide.

Incidence & Prevalence of Cervical Cancer

Approximately 450,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed and 200,000 deaths occur each year.

According to the American Cancer Society, in the U.S.:

About 10,500 women will develop invasive cervical cancer, and about 4,000 women will die of the disease in 2006.
One in 128 women in the U.S. will develop cervical cancer over the course of their lifetime, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Older women (aged 65 and older), especially older Black and Hispanic women, are at highest risk for developing and dying from cervical cancer.

Cervical Cancer and African-American Women

African-American women develop cervical cancer about 50% more often than non-Hispanic white women.

The incidence rate of cervical cancer in African American women is 12.2/100,000.
The incidence rate of cervical cancer in white women is 7.8/100,000
The mortality rate of cervical cancer in African American women is 5.6/100,000
The mortality rate of cervical cancer in white women is 2.6/100,000.

Five year survival rates are higher for white women than African American women (74% compared with 66%, respectively).

This is true even though the rate of cervical cancer screening was similar among African American women (91.2%) and white women (89.2%), and actually higher in African American women.

Human Papillomavirus and Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). Only some high-risk types of HPV cause cervical cancer. Most adults will have high-risk HPV at some point in their lives and are able to clear the virus through their body’s normal immune response. Most women will clear an HPV infection within 9 to 15 months.

If an HPV infection lingers, it can cause cell changes that can lead to cervical cancer.

Importance of Early Detection

Early detection of abnormal cell changes or cervical cancer greatly increases a woman’s chance of survival. Survival for women with pre-invasive lesions is nearly 100%. Invasive cervical cancer, when detected at an early stage, is one of the most successfully treatable cancers with a 5-year survival rate of 92%.

Cervical Cancer Screening

Cervical cancer screening is largely conducted using the Pap test, which tests women for signs of cell changes in the cervix associated with cervical cancer. The Pap test has been successful in significantly reducing mortality associated with cervical cancer and incidence of invasive cervical cancer in the U.S. by close to 70% over the last 40 years.

Now, there is another test that can be used in women 30 and over, the women at greatest risk for cervical cancer.

HPV testing, when combined with the Pap test, is more effective in determining the presence of disease than a Pap test alone. An HPV test looks for the virus that causes cervical cancer, while the Pap test looks for the cell changes caused by HPV.

Vaccines

In the near future, cervical cancer prevention will also include the use of HPV vaccines for young girls. The combination of screening with HPV testing and using HPV vaccines will bring us closer to eliminating this preventable disease.