Advanced stage cervical cancer is rising in White and Black women in the US

“This specific study was born out of a desire to take a deeper dive into the drivers behind cervical cancer,” said Dr., a fourth-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Alex Francoire said, and study one of these authors. “When we looked more closely at cervical cancer, we found that, this kind of paradoxical finding, where you look at early-stage cervical cancer, we’re seeing a decrease in the United States, but then when You look at advanced stage, or metastatic cervical cancer, we’re actually seeing the opposite trend with rates rising in the United States.”

Francois and other researchers looked at data from 29,715 women from 2001 to 2018. The sharpest increase was in white women, at a rate of 1.69%, and particularly among white women in the South from 40 to 44, who had the greatest increase in growth. of 4.5% annually. Black women also grew at a rate of 0.67% annually.

The prevalence of the disease was higher among black women. According to the researchers, the incidence of advanced cervical cancer was 1.55 per 100,000 black women compared to 0.92 per 100,000 white women.

“I think the biggest thing is that we’re seeing this growth, and there are a few things,” Francoer said. “One thing is, you know, with many health disparities, metastatic cervical cancer disproportionately affects minority populations, black and Hispanic women. But then when you look at these trends, we really Seeing the greatest rates of increase in advanced cervical cancer among non-Hispanic white patients.”

The American Cancer Society recommends that screening for cervical cancer should begin at age 25 and every five years until age 65.

“Cervical cancer is incredibly preventable with access to proper screening as well as vaccination for the HPV virus,” Francoire said. “And so, to me, these findings were pretty surprising because I expected the Affordable Care Act to expand and more women to get health insurance and be able to see the opposite findings.”

Looking at trends with respect to age, the largest and fastest increase in metastatic cervical cancer was seen in the 30- to 34-year age group, he said, adding that people in this group are generally healthy and can skip health insurance. If they don’t get it through an employer.

In the study, Francauer and colleagues noted that “known” disparities in access to screening and health care are associated with higher rates of advanced cervical cancer among black and Hispanic women. But the findings showed that white women were more likely than other racial and ethnic groups not to be screened for cervical cancer at five years, and white teens had the lowest rates of HPV vaccination.

“This highlights how important it is for everyone to have access to regular health care and access to recommended screening tests, and that even in young, otherwise healthy women, Pap screening is very important.” and could save lives,” said Francois.

He also highlighted that the data used for the research went back to 2018 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I suspect that with less access to health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, we may see these trends continue to worsen,” she said. “There are many studies looking at different cancers and how people are presenting in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Cervical cancer screening saved lives

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends routine HPV vaccination at age 11 or 12, although it can be started as early as age nine. If not sufficiently vaccinated at an early age, vaccination is recommended for everyone up to the age of 26.

“We know that in today’s day and age of cervical cancer, primary prevention with vaccination and secondary prevention with Pap-based or HPV-based testing will essentially eliminate cervical cancer, we have no way of eliminating cervical cancer right now. tools for,” Dr. Mark Einstein, professor and chair in the departments of obstetrics and gynecology and women’s health at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. “But, what this data has shown is that when we’re not following those screening guidelines, or people aren’t getting screened enough, or people aren’t getting vaccinated, we’re really not getting any of these.” Going to miss some window of opportunity to take these cancers.”

Einstein emphasized the importance of vaccination, especially for girls when they become eligible, and screening.

To avoid missed opportunities, Einstein said, “screening and effective management for cervical cancer is something that we need to continue to be very proactive.”

Dr. Arif Kamal, Chief Patient Officer, American Cancer Society also emphasized the importance of these prevention techniques.

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“There aren’t many cancers for which the prevalence of stage four is increasing, especially for cancers that have a preventable component that is both medical in nature, not lifestyle in nature. In this case you have a vaccine, and This is regular, regularly deployed screening,” he said.

Kamal pointed to colorectal cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer, all of which are examples of cancers that have been screened early, routinely and are not seeing increasing levels of stage four prevalence.

“I think it’s really emphasizing the two pieces,” he said. “That the uptake for HPV vaccination is still not where we want it to be, one,” he said. “Two, that significant barriers to access to that specialized level of care remain.”

While cervical cancer is not very common overall, it requires a level of expertise that is often found in large cancer centers in urban areas and can involve higher costs, Kamal said, and these barriers to care. Inequalities can cause magnification.

Kamal said, “There’s a lot of components to this, where for one population it’s about a lack of HPV vaccination, and for another population, it’s actually chemotherapy resistance, lack of access to specialist care, and perhaps a changed biology.” is about.” “What you have here, in a Cancer, are all the different kinds of inequalities one can think of, crammed into one space.”

(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)