Cervical Cancer

• February 18, 2022
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Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is cancer of the mouth of the uterus. This is the second most common cancer in Indian females after breast cancer. 1.2 lakh new cervical cancer cases are diagnosed every year, 68,000 women die of this cancer every year in India.

Common symptoms: Foul-smelling persistent vaginal discharge, any abnormal bleeding like post-coital bleeding, intermenstrual bleeding, or post-menopausal bleeding, in advance stage patient may present with urinary and bowel problems.

Cause: HPV ( Human Papillomavirus) infection is responsible for 80-90 % of cervical cancer cases worldwide.

Risk Factors: Cervical cancer does not run in family, it does not transmit through genes. Women with multiple sexual partners, early age at first coitus, early childbirth, a husband with multiple sexual partners, women suffering from the sexually transmitted disease are more prone to get an infection with the HPV virus and later cervical cancer.

How to protect yourself: vaccination and screening are the tools to protect. Cervical cancer has a long natural history. Firstly, precancer changes occur in the cervix which later develops into cervical cancer. Screening can detect the precancer stage of cervical cancer and with the different modes of treatment it can be cured in the precancer stage, so we can stop the progression of precancer into cancer so it can be prevented by regular screening of married women and by vaccinating girls before starting sexual activity.

Screening methods: Several methods are available for screening like PAPS smear, LBC (both are cytology tests where superficial scrapings of the cervix are taken and sent for testing)
HPV DNA testing (it detects the presence of HPV infection) VIA, VILI, and colposcopy which detect abnormal changes in the cervix.

Treatment: There are multiple treatment modalities for the precancer stage in which disease can be cured without removing the uterus like cryotherapy, LEEP, cold knife conization.
Surgery (Radical hysterectomy with B/L pelvic lymph-adenectomy) is the treatment of choice for the early stage of cancer cervix. In the advanced stage, radiotherapy along with chemotherapy is given to treat the patient. Patients need to prolong follow-up after completion of treatment for early detection of recurrence. Recurrence is very rare in early-stage after completion of treatment but is common in the advanced stage even after treatment.