Case Study On Cervical Cancer

This year alone approximately 12,360 documented new cases of cervical cancer in the United States and 4,020 deaths according to National Cancer Institute (“Cervical Cancer”, 2014). Cervical cancer is a slow growing cancer that grows in the tissues of the cervix (an organ that connects the uterus and vagina). The disease is predominantly caused by the human papillomavirus infection (HPV). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the HPV virus is so common that nearly all sexually active women and men get it at some point in their lives. Many types of HPV exist, some causing genital warts and potentially cervical cancer. Individuals can get HPV by having unprotected genital to genital touching, oral, vaginal, or anal sex. Anyone who is sexually active can get HPV, and can develop symptoms years after they had sex with someone who is infected, making it difficult to know when they first became infected.

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends cervical cancer screening with cytology testing (also known as a Pap Smear) every three years in women ages 21 to 65 (U.S. Preventative Services Task Force [USPSTF], 2016a). The USPSTF has graded this recommendation with an “A” indicating that they have a high level of certainty that the screening will prove to be beneficial, rather than harmful to the patient (USPSTF, 2016a). However, if this patient would prefer to receive cervical cancer screening every five years, the USPSTF also has a high level of certainty that this will prove to beneficial rather than harmful if human papillomavirus (HPV) and cytology are both performed during this screening (USPSTF, 2016a). The

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Human papillomavirus (HPV) infects roughly 20 million individuals in the United States with 6.1 million new cases each year. There is no cure for HPV, only treatment for associated health problems. There are more than 30 strains of HPV that affect more than half of sexually active individuals in their lifetime. Public health risks involve several types of HPV leading to precancerous lesions and causing 70% of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer, the second most common cancer, affects many women globally. In the United States, nearly 10,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer annually and 3,700 of those women die. It has been reported by American Cancer Society that with early

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancerous death, in women, since 1950. Approximately 200,000 cervical cancer patients die each year in developing countries. Strains like HPV 16 and 18 cause about 70% of cervical cancer in women– one of the top causes of death in the world (WebMD, 2010, p.1). In the Unites States, about 10,000 women acquire the disease and 3,700 die annually Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is directly associated as a cause of cervical cancer. This virus affects the skin and genital area and, in some cases, it can also infect the throat and mouth. Since the HPV is passed from one person to another through skin-to-skin or sexual contact, sexually active people are more prone to this virus. Merck

Hispanic women had the highest rate of getting cervical cancer in 2012, followed by black, white, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian/Pacific Islander women (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2013).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the leading cause of cervical cancer remains Human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that passes from one person to another during sex.” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015) . Although HPV is a common Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), physicians suggest that all women over the age of 21 be tested for cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is cancer that starts in the cervix, which is the “lower, narrow end of the uterus.”2 This form of cancer occurs mostly in women who are older than thirty. The current estimate is 12,000 women in the U.S. who have cervical cancer and 4,000 deaths occur from it1. The main cause of cervical cancer is human papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted through sexual intercourse. Although these statistics seem high, cervical cancer is a rare form of cancer. Historically, cervical cancer was known as the “leading cause of cancer death for women in the U.S.”3. The number of women effected and the number of deaths have significantly decreased over the past 40 years due to various interventions.

population impacted by this cancer is women of course, but mainly women that are sexual active

current evidence available at the time of publication and on the natural history of HPV and cervical pre-cancer. High-risk HPV infections are very common in young women, but most of these infections are transient: as they are typically cleared spontaneously from the woman’s body eliminates them spontaneously. Only a the small percentage of all HPV infections that persist for many years may lead to invasive cancer. Cervical cancer usually develops slowly, taking 10–20 years from early precancer to invasive cancer, so cervical cancer is rare before the age of 30. Screening younger women will detect many lesions that will never develop into cancer, which will lead to considerable overtreatment, and is thus not cost-effective.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus that is spread through sexual contact. This virus causes warts. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease worldwide. Persistent infection with high-risk HPV-types is associated with cancers, which include cervical, anal, and head/neck cancers (Chen, 2015). There is no cure for HPV infection.

On a global scale, cancer is now responsible for double the amount of annual deaths than malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS combined, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC, 2016). With cancer rates now increasing rapidly in developing countries, the World Health Organization has predicted that the amount of cancer deaths worldwide will increase by 80% by 2030 (WHO, 2012). Most of these new cases will emerge in the developing regions of the world, regions that lack efficient healthcare access and proper screening procedures to catch the disease early on. Cervical cancer is one of the most prevalent cancer types among humans today, ranking as the 7th most prevalent cancer overall, and 4th most prevalent among women. Furthermore, almost 9 out of 10 (87%) of cancer deaths occur in developing regions of the world (Globocan, 2012). Clearly, the global burden of cervical cancer is not evenly distributed. Already, it can be seen that gender and socioeconomic status, among other determinants, play a role in susceptibility to the disease. This paper explores the various factors that account for the unequal global burden of cervical cancer, and presents an intervention strategy that targets the root causes of discrepancy for the disease.

The human papillomavirus is easily spread through skin to skin contact by having many sexual partners or engaging in early sexual contact where the sexual partner is HPV-positive (Szaboova et al., 2014) Smoking and long-term taking contraceptive pills are the side factors that boost the rate of incidence of cervical cancer (Lertkhachonsuk, Yip, Khuharprema, Chen, Plummer, Jee, Toi & Wilailak, 2013).

While effective prevention programmes hold out the promise of dramatically decreasing the incidence of cervical cancer, any large-scale screening effort directed towards healthy populations can have both positive and negative outcomes.

The main causes as well risk factors that cause cervical cancer mainly include Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infection, multiple sexual partners, intake of birth control pills, smoking, and engaging in sexual contact at an early age.

Cervical cytology is so well established in the field of public health that lack of such screening is now considered as one of the central risk factors for invasive cervical carcinoma. (Devesa, Young, Brinton, Fraumeni, 1989). It has been estimated that, if cervical cytology or Pap smear was discontinued, then there would be two to three times increase in the lifetime risk of development of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer screening is an effective measure to reduce the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer but it faces some of the challenges. The most significant one is women, not always, accept any form of prevention cordially and result in million of deaths in near future. For this reason, mortality from cervical cancer which is an