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Arnice Trotter’s Pap smears were normal, but the 50–year–old St. Louis woman knew something was wrong "because of the terrible smell of the blood I constantly passed." She was diagnosed with an aggressive kind of cervical cancer on the day her first grandchild was born.
Cancer of the cervix–the part of a woman’s body that connects the uterus and the vagina, providing the pathway for menstruation, a conduit for sperm and a canal through which a baby is born — is the fifth most common cancer in African–American women and the tenth most common in their white counterparts. The disease may be linked to a strain of human papillomavirus (HPV), transmitted through sexual intercourse.
The virus itself does not cause cancer, but it increases a woman’s risk of contracting the disease when combined with other factors, including:
Every woman who has ever had sexual intercourse may have HPV, which increases her risk of developing cervical cancer. About 50 percent of all sexually active adults in the U.S. are infected with HPV, including men, though they don’t have the same susceptibility to cancer from it as women do. So how can an African–American woman protect herself from developing cervical cancer?
A Pap smear detects cervical cancer in its early stages, when it is the most treatable and curable, as in Trotter’s case. Since regular Pap smears became part of women’s health regimen, there has been a dramatic drop in the incidence of cervical cancer. The exception: Black women older than 65 who have not had a Pap smear in the past three years.
ACOG recommends all women have their first Pap smear, which tests for cervical cancer, beginning at age 21 or three years after first intercourse, whichever comes first. This should be repeated annually for women up to age 30. After age 30, if a woman has had three negative Pap smear results, she can reduce screening to every two to three years.
A Pap smear, a painless test where cervical cells are scraped, placed on a slide and examined under a microscope, is usually accompanied by a pelvic exam, which may pinpoint other physical problems.
If you have a pre–cancerous lesion, your doctor will probably use a procedure called a colposcopy, which magnifies the growth for better viewing. According to Alexander Burnett, MD, a gynecologic oncologist at Norris Cancer Center, University of Southern California, in mild cases, no treatment is needed, because the lesion usually clears up naturally.
In moderate or severe cases, one of these treatments may be done:
If you are diagnosed with cervical cancer, your doctor may suggest the following treatments:
When detected early, most cervical cancers can be treated without major surgery.
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