Cervical cancer prevention through organized screening

Though cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women after breast cancer, it is preventable through an organized screening program, this according to Dr. Cecilia Llave, chairman of the Cancer Institute of the Philippine General Hospital.

She said that though cervical cancer incidence remains unchanged from 1980 to date with 44 percent overall survival rate or about 10 per 100,000 women dying from the disease over five years, there is a successful cervical cancer prevention program that is based on organized screening. Cervical cytology is presently considered to be the only test known to reduce cervical cancer incidence in organized screening programs.

Viral infection that causes chronic infections of the cervix, particularly human papilloma virus causes cancer of the uterine cervix. The virus is transmitted through sexual intercourse and the more numerous the sexual partners of the woman or the woman's partner, the greater risk of being exposed to the virus

Some of the warning signals of cervical cancer are the irregular painless bleeding not associated with menstruation and the unusual vaginal discharge.

The goal of screening is to detect the pre-invasive stage of the disease and treat it appropriately before it progresses to cervical cancer. In developed countries, initiation and sustenance of cervical cytology programs, involving screening of sexually active women yearly, or once every two to five years have resulted in a large decline in cervical cancer incidence and mortality.

However, an organized screening program is difficult to implement in developing countries where resources are scarce. Although cytology is being carried out in developing countries, this is mostly done in the context of opportunistic screening activities, which are often inadequately performed and of poor quality.

In Cebu, there are already 38 cervical cancer cases recorded by the Eduardo Aboitiz Cancer Center in 2004. In 2002, the center recorded at least 347 cases.

The updated data is not yet presented as it is made every 2 to 3 years. - Jasmin R. Uy