A new study finds that rates of late-stage cervical cancer are rising in the US with the fastest increase among white women, although the prevalence of the disease is still highest among black women.
An analysis of data from nearly 30,000 women with advanced disease showed that black women had a prevalence rate of about 60% higher than white women. Researchers found that advanced adenocarcinoma, with the lowest overall survival rate, increased at nearly twice the rate in white women than in black women, as reported in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer: Percentage in White People. The year is 3.4%. women compared to 1.71% among black women.
“Paradoxically, when we look at early-stage cancer, we see that it has decreased, but when you look at stage IV metastatic cervical cancer, the opposite is true: rates have increased. ,” said the study’s first author, Dr. Alex Francoire. , fourth year OB-GYN resident at the University of California, Los Angeles.
“Unfortunately, there is no easy explanation of how this can be improved.”
The sharpest increase in rates of late-stage cervical cancer, 4.5% per year, was among white women in the South, ages 40 to 44 — a group that would have been too old to be vaccinated against HPV, the virus that causes cancer. Can cause cervical cancer.
Francois said that at least part of the explanation for the rapid rise in late-stage cervical cancer among white women may be lower rates of screening. She and her colleagues found that compared to black women, white women were almost twice as likely not to be screened or not screened in line with clinical guidelines, resulting in a gap of five or more years between Pap smears. . ,
To take a closer look at trends in rates of late-stage cervical cancer, Francoire and colleagues consulted the Centers for Epidemiology, 2001 to 2018 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance. Turning to the figures. Final Result Program. Data on rates of cervical cancer screening come from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a national system of health-related telephone surveys.
Among 29,715 women diagnosed with advanced-stage cervical cancer between 2001 and 2018, the incidence was higher in black women than in white women: 1.55 per 100,000 versus 0.92 per 100,000. The researchers found that there was an increase of 1.3% overall. years in late stage cancer. The largest increase occurred in cervical adenocarcinoma, growing at an annual percentage rate of 2.9% per year.
While researchers weren’t able to look at the screening histories of women who had late-stage cancer, it’s reasonable to assume that a lack of screening is to blame, Dr. Stephanie Blank, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine. Director of Gynecological Oncology for Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Health System.
“It’s a great shame,” Blank said. “Unfortunately, this is a disease that disproportionately affects under-resourced and under-insured communities. What we really need is a system that helps people get both the vaccine and the screening. These are life-saving These trends can only be reversed by improving access to tools.”
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)