Cervical Cancer

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ervical cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. Some researchers estimate that noninvasive cervical cancer (carcinoma in situ) is about 4 times more common than invasive cervical cancer. About 4,600 women will die from cervical cancer in the United States during 2000. Cervical cancer was once one of the most common causes of cancer death for American women. Between 1955 and 1992, the number of cervical cancer deaths in the United States declined by 74%. The main reason for this change is the increased use of the Pap test, a screening procedure that permits diagnosis of pre-invasive and early invasive cancer. The death rate continues to decline at a rate of about 2% a year. The 5-year relative survival rate for the earliest stage of invasive cervical cancer is 91%. The overall (all stages combined) 5-year survival rate for cervical cancer is about 70%. For cervical precancer the 5-year survival rate is nearly 100%. “(cite a source here)
Risk Factors
There are several factors that increase a woman’s risk of developing cervical cancer. Women without any of these risk factors rarely develop cervical cancer. Although these risk factors increase the odds of developing cervical cancer, many women with these risks do not develop this disease. When a woman develops cervical cancer or pre-cancerous changes, it is not possible to say with certainty that a particular risk factor was the cause.
One risk factor of cancer is age; the average age of women newly diagnosed with cervical cancer is between 50 and 55 years. The risk of developing this cancer is very low among girls less than fifteen. This risk increases between the late teens and mid-thirties. Unlike many other cancers that rarely affect young adults, cervical cancer can affect young women in their twenties and even in their teens. Many older women do not realize that they have the highest risk of developing cervical cancer. (put quote somewhere in here)
The most common ...