January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. Dr. Emese Zsiros chair of Gynecologic Oncology from Roswell Park joined us to talk about cervical cancer awareness.
While cervical cancers continue to decline, they still remain a serious health threat.
How soon should we start talking about this? Dr. Zsiros says they recommend you talk to your pediatrician early on around the ages of eleven or twelve because that’s when they start giving HPV
(human papillomavirus) vaccinations for our children.
Dr. Zsiros says HPV is a very common virus that is found literally everywhere and everyone who has had exposure to sexual contact will get exposed at some point in our lives. She goes on to say it is typically spread by skin contact and mostly genital contact and so it is very prevalent so most of us will get exposed to it once or one strain in our lives.
Overtime it can lead to cervical change in tissue, but it can also vaginal cancer, rectal cancer and even mouth cancer and Dr. Zsiros says many of these cancers are preventable if someone shows up for early screenings.
Why should you get the vaccination so young? Dr. Zsiros says, “The main reason we vaccinate so early because we want to prevent the first intercourse and exposure, so we want to faint exposure early on when there is no possible exposure but also it is easier to vaccinate younger children, they just mount a more robust immune response and a stronger immune defense.” The vaccination is recommended between ages 11 to 26 but is currently available up until age 45.
Dr. Zsiros says they know that cervical cancer pre-cancer is disproportionately affect more Hispanic women, and unfortunately black women have worse outcomes when they get cervical cancer.
Dr. Zsiros tells us that cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers world-wide. It is about the fourth leading cause for women’s cancer death for women world-wide. In the United States she says we have about 14,000 new cases annually and about 4,000 women die of cervical cancer in the United States and says all of these are completely preventable or almost completely preventable. Dr. Zsiros says, “So I think the message is that if people get the vaccine early on the risk of developing pre-cancer legions is extremely low, and if you didn’t get the vaccines, or even a compromise, going for a regular screening will definitely catch the cancer cells early on, so you will prevent bigger cervical cancer.”
For more information go to RoswellPark.org
