(WKBN) — January marks cervical cancer awareness month. More than 13,000 women are diagnosed with the cancer each year, but those rates are dropping thanks to advances in preventative treatments and screenings
Mercy Health radiation oncologist Dr. Patrizia Guerrieri said because of screening and preventing, cervical cancer is not the death sentence it used to be — with an overall 5-year survival rate of 67%. The cancer can be detected early on thanks to regular pap smears and gynecologist visits.
“For cervical cancer screenings as being a very important factor in decreasing the appearance of invasive cancer,” Guerrieri said.
Symptoms of cervical cancer include unexplained bleeding and pelvic pain. The majority of cervical cancers, about 70% worldwide, are caused by Human Papillomavirus, or HPV.
Most people will get HPV at some point in their lives, and the infection usually goes away on its own, but certain strains of the virus can stick around.
“In the majority of women infected with this particular type of virus, that gets cleared out spontaneously — but in a certain number of males and females, it stays dormant, so to speak, and it can give rise to different types of cancer,” Guerrieri said.
The HPV vaccine helps prevent that. Screenings have become more advanced, too, detecting abnormal cancer cells earlier than ever before. That’s why Guerrieri stresses the importance of seeing a gynecologist regularly.
“With these simple things, which is screening, we really have a bright future of where we can forget about the incidence of this type of cancer in terms of decreasing our lifespan,” Guerrieri said.