However, only a small proportion of women infected with HPV develop cervical cancer because the cancer results only from certain types of persistent HPV infection. With January being the National Cervical Cancer Awareness month, doctors hope that the general public will expand its knowledge pertaining to this disease. Here is what you need to know to protect yourself.
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HPV, the main cause of cervical cancer, is a common virus that is passed from one person to another during sexual intercourse. On the other hand, the HPV test uses a machine to detect the presence of two specific strains known to cause cancer.
It’s been more than 60 years since the pap test has become a standard form of cervical cancer detection for American women, but could it be going away? At least half of sexually active people will have HPV at some point in their lives, but few women will get cervical cancer.
“Approximately 80 percent of women have, sometime in their lifetime, been exposed to HPV”, said Dr. Daniel Metzinger, a gynecological oncologist with UofL Physicians and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, also part of KentuckyOne Health.
One of the great success stories in cancer research, since annual Pap test cervical cancer screenings were introduced in the 1950s, cases of what was once the number one cancer in women have plummeted. Preliminary data from the CNMI Cancer Registry indicated that a total of 56 women in the CNMI were diagnosed with cervical cancer between 2007 and 2014.
In the past 30 year, cervical cancer deaths have decreased 50 percent, largely due to more women getting regular cervical screenings or Pap tests, which can detect changes in the cervix before cancer develops. The pap test involves a technician examining a swab of cervical cells under a microscope. Young women in their teens and 20s are not at high risk of HPV, as their immune system clears the virus and related cell changes. As the women pass 30 years old, they are highly recommended to be tested of HPV.
In fact, the most recent numbers show that just over 4,000 died from cervical cancer in 2012, whereas just over 41,000 women died from breast cancer. The vaccine is recommended at such a young age because the body can produce the most infection-fighting cells, antibodies, during the preteen years.
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Tamera Manzanares is marketing voordinator at the Northwest Colorado Visiting Nurse Association.
