Cervical Cancer

Hello!

I am Dr. Anjuli Dixit running a nursing home at sector 84 J-Block, Greater Faridabad. I am going to talk about something regarding cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most prevalent cancer among women which infects about 80 to 90% of the girls before attaining menarche. So it is important to discuss something about this. What is cervix? Cervix is the part connecting uterus to the vagina of the woman and this is the part through which sperms passes into the uterus. So this is the most important organ which gets involved during sexual intercourse. So this is the part which gets infected even before attaining menarche and we should know something regarding this because it is the most common cancer of the women. What causes cervical cancer? Cervical cancer is caused by HPV virus which is present in vaginal secretions and in the environment which infects vaginal discharge and causes cervical cancer.

How it infects the woman? It may cause infection through skin, through sexual intercourse or through secretions which may infect the women. Who are the potential candidates for the cervical cancer? Girls after attaining menarche, girls which start early sexual intercourse, in girls who are having multiple partners and cigarette smokers are also potential candidates for this cervical cancer. How does it present? It may present through genital warts, through vaginal warts, through cervical erosion and any long-lasting infection which infects the cervix. Pain, abnormal vaginal bleeding, pelvic discharge which is long lasting, pelvic pain leading to dyspareunia these are the symptoms which it affects the women and which causes women to seek medical advice. When we should seek advice? We should get Pap smear done even at the age of 20-25 years or just after becoming sexually active.

And early detection always improves the outcome of the cervical cancer treatment because it is a very slow growing disease and its effect, infects the part early and it presents the disease in a later stage. So even in early 20s or 30s women may get infected with HPV but it may present the disease at the age of 50. Earliest detection always brings better outcome. We should get Pap smear done at the age of 25 years. We can even prevent the infection before being infected by cervical cancer vaccine which can be given at the age of 9 years.

It may be given in 2 doses between the age of 9 to 14 year and then 3 doses at the age of 14 years and it can be given up to the age of 45 years. It will prevent cervical cancer because this is the only cancer which can be prevented by vaccine and early detection may lead to better outcome of the disease so early detection and treatment always prevents the cervical cancer spread.

Thank you!