Cervical
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Cervical Cancer
Cancer
is a disease in which cells in the body grow out
of control. Cancer is always named for the part
of the body where it starts, even if it spreads
to other body parts later. When cancer starts in
the cervix, it is called cervical cancer.
The cervix is the lower,
narrow end of the uterus. Also known as the womb, the
uterus is where a baby grows when a woman is pregnant.
The cervix connects the upper part of the uterus to the
vagina (birth canal).
Cervical
cancer is the easiest female cancer to prevent, because
there is a vaccine and a screening test available.
It also is highly curable when found and treated early.
Know
your risk
All women are at risk
for cervical cancer. It occurs most often in women aged
30 years and older. In 2004 (the most recent year for
which statistics are currently available), 11,892 women
in the United States of America were told they had cervical
cancer, and 3,850 died from the disease.
It is important to get
tested for cervical cancer because 6 of 10 cervical cancers
occur in women who have never received a Pap test or
have not been tested in the past five years.
Cervical Cancer and
HPV
The human papillomavirus
(HPV), a common virus that can be passed from one person
to another during sex, is the main cause of cervical
cancer and also causes many vaginal and vulvar cancers.
At least half of sexually active people will have HPV
at some point in their lives. Keep in mind, many people
will have an HPV infection at some time in their lives,
but few women will get cervical cancer.
More details, including
medically graphic images, can be found at the The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.
Please click here
For more details from
the CDC about HPV please visit the CDC's dedicated HPV
site. Please
click here.
on-line tools
To estimate your risk
of cervical cancer and learn about ways to lower
that risk, take a few minutes to answer some questions
about your health, background, and lifestyle. To
take the interactive questionnaire online please
click here
Cervical cancer is one of the most
preventable kinds of cancer. Once a leading cause
of cancer death in the US, cervical cancer is now
much less common. The reason? Regular screenings
with Pap tests that can help prevent the disease
or catch it early when it’s most treatable. And a
new cervical cancer vaccine for youth should boost
the potential of prevention even further.
MedlinePlus will direct you to information to help
answer health questions. MedlinePlus brings together
authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes
of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and
health-related organizations. MedlinePlus also has
extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical
encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and latest
health news. Please
click here
cervical
cancer information
The Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) and
the American Cancer Society (ACS) among
others, provide many on-line cancer resources. Please
make sure you visit their constantly
updated websites, reflecting
the latest scientific findings and visit the
links for more information about cervical cancer.
Funded by the US federal
government, publishes information about different forms
of cancer on the Web. To visit the cervical cancer
pages from NCI directly please
click here
is the nationwide community-based
voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating
cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer,
saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer,
through research, education, advocacy, and service.
To get to the ACS cervical cancer information
pages please
click here
Public Health
Programme is dedicated to improving the
health, and therefore the future, of all Pacific Islanders.
To see a list of selected publications from SPC’s Healthy
Pacific Lifestyle please
click here
from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's
website (SPC-HPLS) please
click here
There are
many breakthroughs in developing more effective prevention
strategies for cervical cancer, both for early detection
and HPV vaccine. To make sure you get access to the most
up-to-date information, we recommend you check the web
sites of rho.org, IARC and ACCP.
If you have limited Internet access we recommend you
start with rho's
archive, organized by subject.
Printed materials
to download
This section has pdf
(Adobe Acrobat format) files of useful resources created
by various agencies that can be downloaded directly
from the pacificcancer.org website. The organization,
year of publication and size of the pdf file are listed.
ASCO
Answers is a series of fact sheets that provides
an introduction to a specific type of cancer.
Each fact sheet is a PDF that includes an overview
of what the cancer is, an illustration of where
the cancer starts, how it is treated, terms to
know, and questions to ask the doctor. American
Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2008. 2 pages
(pdf 320K). To download the pdf please
click here.
A brochure in a series of “What you need to know”
produced by NCI. This booklet tells about diagnosis,
staging, treatment, and follow-up care in greater
detail. This publication can be ordered for free
in the mail or downloaded as a pdf file (55 pages,
pdf 556K). To download it as a PDF file please
click here.
(pdf 270KB) from the CDC's Inside Knowledge campaign.
To download please
click here
quick links on-line:
CDC information
speciafically about cervical cancer click: Cervical
Cancer Basic Information
with and overview about
cervical cancer can be found on the CDC website. You
can also download the file (4MB) and listed to it off-line.
To get to the CDC’s podcast page please
click here
Acknowledgment: This text is
adapted from the CDC website.
