Cervical Cancer Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

What is Cervical Cancer?

• Cervical cancer occurs when there is an abnormal growth of cells in the cervix that grow uncontrollably and have the ability to destroy normal body tissue. 
• Older women are most at risk for developing cervical cancer. 
• Each year, more than 12,000 women in the US find out that they have cervical cancer, and approximately 4,000 die from it.

Causes

• Various strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus, are responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases. 
• The immune system in most women prevents the virus from doing harm, but in some women it can survive for years before it eventually converts some cells on the surface into cancer cells.

Risk Factors

• Many sexual partners.  The greater number of partners you have, the greater your chance of acquiring HPV.
• Early sexual activity.  First sexual intercourse before age 18 increases your risk of HPV.  Immature cells seem to be more susceptible to the precancerous changes that HPV can cause.
• Infection with other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).  If you have other STD, you have a greater chance of being exposed to HPV.

• Cigarette smoking. The exact link isn’t known, but tobacco use increases the risk of precancerous changes as well as cancer of the cervix.

Signs/symptoms

• Early cervical cancer generally produces no signs or symptoms. 

As the cancer progresses, these signs and symptoms may appear:

• Bleeding from the vagina after intercourse
• between periods or after menopause
• Watery, bloody discharge from your vagina that may be heavy and have a foul odor

Treatment

Treatment during the pre-invasive stage where only the outer layer of the lining is affected may include:

• Simple surgery.  This involves removing the infected tissue with a scalpel.
• Laser surgery.  A narrow beam of intense light is used to kill cancerous and precancerous cells.
• Loop electrosurgical excision procedure.  A wire loop with an electrical current cuts the tissue like a surgeon’s knife to remove the abnormal cells.
• Cryosurgery.  Freezing and killing cancerous and precancerous cells.
• Simple hysterectomy.  Major surgery involving the removal of the cervix and the uterus.

The 5-year survival rate, defined as living 5 years or longer after being diagnosed with cervical cancer, is almost 100 percent for pre-invasive cervical cancer.

Treatment during the invasive stage may include:

• Radical Hysterectomy.  Removal of the cervix, uterus, part of the vagina and lymph nodes in the area.  Usually one or both ovaries remain and preserve estrogen production.
• Radiation.  High energy rays shrink tumors by killing the cancer cells and destroying the ability of the cells to reproduce.
• Chemotherapy.  Using drugs to kill cancer cells may enhance the effects of the radiation.  Tumors tend to shrink rapidly with aggressive chemotherapy, but the drugs can be toxic.
• The 5-year survival rate is more than 90 percent. 

Prevention

The best ways to prevent cervical cancer are to:

• Delay first intercourse
• Have fewer sex partners
• Use condoms
• Have routine PAP tests.  A PAP test, or PAP smear is when the cervical cells are swabbed and then sent out for testing. It is the most successful and accurate method of early detection. 
• Current guidelines suggest that your first PAP test be performed at the age of 18 if you haven’t been sexually active, or when you first begin having sexual intercourse.
• Gardasil vaccination.  Gardasil protects women against the strands of HPV that have been proven a direct link to cervical cancer.  

 

Adapted from: http://hmshealth.weebly.com

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