Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers, although recent research suggests that the United States is going back in efforts to detect early disease, when it is more curable.
A new study shows that the percentage of women examined for cervical cancer fell from 47% in 2019 to 41% in 2023.
Rural women have 25% more likely to be diagnosed and 42% more likely to die from cervical cancer than women living in cities, a trend that probably reflects lower detection rates in less populated areas, according to the study, published in Jama Network Open this month.
Every year, 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer, which is almost always caused by HPV or human papilloma. Around 4,320 die every year, according to the American cancer society.
Cervical cancer rates have risen between women aged 30 and 40, perhaps because women aged 21 to 29 are the slightest probability of being up to date in their projections, and 29% are late.
Cervical cancer takes several years to develop, progressing from changes in abnormal cells and precanchants before transforming into cancer. Studies show that women also are less likely to be selected if they are not white, without insurance or are identified as gay, lesbians or bisexuals.
HPV vaccines are safe and can prevent 90% of cervical cancers. However, vaccine resistance, which protects against strains that cause sexually transmitted infection cancer, has persisted since it was approved almost 20 years ago. The Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has belittled them as dangerous, linking HPV’s shots with autoimmune conditions and mental illnesses.
On March 10, a federal judge in North Carolina dismissed the legal claims that HPV shot, sold by Merck as Gardasil, could cause patients to develop certain health conditions.
Another demand alleges that Gardasil causes serious side effects has been suspended until September due to Kennedy’s participation in the case. Although Kennedy revealed in a statement of ethics that was found to receive reference rates from one of the law firms he demanded at Merck, then he said he would give his son a profits.
The vaccine has prevented many parents from emptying their children. Only 61% of adolescents are up to date on all HPV vaccines, given as a series of two or three shots depending on age.
More than 42 million people in the US. However, research has found a decrease in awareness that HPV is linked to a series of cancers, including cervical, throat and anal.
With so many people at risk, we ask experts to help clarify confusion about vaccination and HPV detection.
How often should women be examined to detect cervical cancer?
The American Cancer Society recommends that people have a primary HPV test every five years between 25 and 65 years. If the primary HPV tests are not available, the company recommends combining a HPV test with a PAP test every five years or a PAP test only every three years.
How have vaccines against HPV rates of cervical cancer and precacence affected?
Among women from 20 to 24 years old, who were eligible for HPV shots as teenagers, the incidence of cervical precancers fell almost 80% from 2008 to 2002, according to centers for disease control and prevention. The incidence of cervical cancer fell 65% from 2012 to 2019 among women under 25 years. Uterine cancer mortality rates between the same age group fell 62% from 2013-2015 to 2019-2021.
How common is HPV?
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Among sexually active people, more than 90% of men and 80% of women are infected with HPV during their lives. About half of HPV infections involve high -risk strains. In addition to cervical cancer, HPV can cause vagina, vulva, anus, penis and neck cancer.
Given how common these viruses are, nobody should feel ashamed to know that they have HPV, said Dr. Rebecca Perkins, an obstetrician-ginologist and researcher at the Institute for Women’s Research, Mother and Baby at the Tufts Medical Center. “We need to reduce the stigma associated with having a positive test,” said Perkins.
What does it mean if a high -risk HPV test has HPV?
Although there are more than 200 types of HPV, only a few cause cancer. These types are known as high -risk strains and are included in routine cervical cancer evaluations, because they have the greatest possibility of causing cancer, said Dr. Verda Hicks, former immediate president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “If a HPV test is positive for HPV at high risk, it indicates an active infection that increases the risk of development of cancer prior to cancer,” Hicks said.
Is being infected with high -risk HPV gives you a high risk of cancer?
R. No. The immune system erases most HPV infections within a year or two, Hicks said. Most people with high -risk HPV experience short -term infections that cause minor changes in cervical cells, which return to normal once the infection is erased.
Doctors care more if someone positively gives HPV at high risk for more than two years, since persistent infections can lead to the development of precacence or cancer. About 1% of people with HPV develop a “chronic long -term infection” and even less develop cervical cancer, Hicks said.
“Women should not be scared” just because they have HPV at high risk, Hicks said. A positive test “means that the detection process is doing its job. It is identifying someone who possibly has a persistent infection.”
Submit to routine exams and any recommended monitoring test allows doctors to catch these changes early, when they are easier to treat, Perkins said.
That is why it is essential not to omit any check, he said.
“The more time it remains positive, the more the risk of developing cancer, said Perkins.
How common are high -risk HPV infections?
Among the women projected for the first time in their 20 and 30 years, up to 20% learn that they have HPV at high risk, said Dr. Mark Einstein, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and health of women at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
What should people do with high -risk HPV infections?
There is no general recipe for high -risk HPV people, said Hicks, who said doctors adapt their advice for each individual, depending on a variety of risk factors.
While people with high -risk HPV should not panic, they must take the finding seriously, follow your doctor’s advice and attend any recommended follow -up visit, he said. These visits allow doctors to search for abnormal cells, which can be eliminated before becoming cancer.
Can people who were vaccinated against HPV still positive?
Yes. This is because the original HPV shots, which were approved for children and adolescents in 2006, protected against the two most risky viral strains, which together cause 70% of cervical cancer, as well as two strains that cause genital warts. Although the first HPV vaccines were very effective, people vaccinated with them could infect with one of the HPV strains that cause the other 30% of cervical cancers, Perkins said. The shots updated by HPV now protect against nine strains of the virus and protect against 90% of cervical and anal cancers, as well as most strains that cause mouth and throat cancers.
Can you positive for HPV at high risk years after being infected?
Yes. A positive HPV test does not necessarily reflect a recent infection.
Although the immune system usually does a good job by controlling HPV, the virus does not disappear from the body. HPV can sometimes reactivate, especially if a person’s immune system has been under stress due to a disease or certain medications, Perkins said.
“We see reactivations in women who have not been sexually active in 10 years,” Perkins said. “It is just a function of the virus that escapes the immune system. It should never be divorced on a diagnosis of HPV.”
Somehow, HPV is similar to chickenpox virus, which can hide in nerve cells for decades before reactivating and cause a painful condition called tiles.
“It doesn’t matter if the infection is old or new; we still need to follow up,” Perkins said.
Is there a cure for HPV?
There is no cure for the virus itself. Health professionals can eliminate abnormal growth in the cervix, as well as genital warts.
