We've Been Seriously Underestimating Cervical Cancer Risks

Women, especially black women, might face a greater chance of dying of cervical cancer than previously thought, according to a study published Monday in the journal Cancer. Estimates from previous studies may have been artificially low because they included women who had had hysterectomies, a procedure to remove the uterus. The new study suggests that black women are dying at a rate 77 percent higher, and white women are dying at a rate 47 percent higher, than researchers had previously thought. After adjusting for hysterectomies, cervical cancer killed 10 out of every 100,000 black women and approximately 5 out of every 100,000 white women. “Your risk of cervical cancer is much lower after a hysterectomy, which generally removes the cervix,” Dr. Douglas Levine, the director of the division of gynecologic oncology at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, who was not associated with the new study, told The Huffington Post. Nearly 12,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,000 died of the disease in 2013, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The biggest risk factor for cervical cancer is contracting human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted infection that most people get at some point during their lives. Other risk factors included smoking, using birth control pills for five or more years and having several sexual partners, according to the CDC.  Cervical cancer was one of the leading causes of ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news