Alekhya Gajarla
Union Finance Minister has brought cervical cancer into focus by annoucing funds for vaccination in the budget for 2024-25.
Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among women in India. Globally, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. The highest rates of cervical cancer incidence and mortality are in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, and South-East Asia.
Cervical cancer is the cancer of cells in the cervix. The cervix is a hollow cylinder that connects lower part of woman’s uterus to her vagina.
Most cervical cancer cases are caused by human papillomavirus (HPV). Many women with cervical cancer don’t realise they have the disease early on because it usually doesn’t cause symptoms until late stages.
Symptoms are unusual bleeding between periods or after sex, vaginal discharge that looks or smells different than usual, pain in the pelvis, needing to urinate more often, pain during urination, etc.
Cervical cancer has four stages:
- The cancer is small. It may spread to only lymph nodes not to other parts.
- It may have spread outside of the uterus and cervix.
- The cancer has spread to the lower part of the vagina or to the pelvis. It may be blocking uterus tubes.
- The cancer may have spread outside of the pelvis to organs like lungs, bones / liver.
Coming to the treatment, surgery is done to remove as much of the cancer as possible, may involve removing the cervix. Radiation therapy is used to kill cancer cells using high energy X-ray beams. Finally, chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body.
The diagnosis is through a pap smear test, in which a sample of cells is collected from cervix to find precancerous or cancer changes.
Prevention: Being vaccinated at age of 9-14 years is a highly effective way to prevent cervical cancer. Screening from age of 30 can detect the disease, which when treated also prevents its further spread.