Though easily diagnosed and highly preventable, cervical cancer remains the second most common cancer in women and claimed 40 lives in the state of Connecticut last year.
Lieutenant Governor Michael Fedele held four press conferences at hospitals throughout the state on January 17 to raise awareness of cervical cancer and prevention.
“Prevention is the key,” stated Fedele. “In half of the [cervical cancer] cases, the women never had a Pap smear.” The Pap smear is a test that checks for changes in the cells of a woman’s cervix. Test results can tell if there is an infection, abnormal cervical cells, or cervical cancer. Last year, an estimated 11,150 women in the nation were diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Each year 9,710 new cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed and approximately 3,700 women will die from cervical cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Connecticut deputy health commissioner Normal Gyle, remarked at the press conference that cervical cancer is “something we can fix” and that her agency would like to see the disease fade much like polio.
One of the major causes of cervical cancer is the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection in the nation. In 2006, an HPV vaccine was licensed for use among females ages 9-26 for the prevention of HPV-related cervical disease including cancer. The vaccine was developed to protect against four strains of HPV, types 6, 11, 16 and 18. Types 16 and 18 are responsible for 70% of all cervical cancer while types 6 and 11 are responsible for 90% of genital warts cases. The National Cancer Institute recommends that the vaccine be given to girls between ages of 9 and 11. It is important for the vaccine to be administered prior to first sexual intercourse because it has not been shown to have a therapeutic effect.
Linda Niccolai, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, is the director of an HPV vaccine monitoring project that is funded by the CDC. The study aims to monitor the effectiveness of the vaccine. Working with the Yale Emerging Infections Program and the Connecticut Department of Public Health, the goal of this project is to develop and implement a surveillance system for precursors to cervical cancer among residents of New Haven County.
“This work is extremely important because it will show the population-level impact of the HPV vaccine,” according to Niccolai. “We know from well-designed and implemented clinical trials that the vaccine works extremely well in women who receive it, but a remaining question is the degree to which it can reduce cervical disease in the community at large. This depends on many factors, including uptake, that is, how many women actually get the vaccine, and adherence to vaccination schedules. Ideally, women should get all three doses prior to initiating sexual activity.”
As part of Cervical Screening Month, the Connecticut Department of Public Health is reminding women in the state to schedule their annual cervical cancer screening and urges those who have not been screened in the past year to schedule a test. Niccolai encourages women to take a proactive role in speaking with their physicians about receiving a Pap test. “Despite the fact that nationally accepted guidelines, for women with no history of abnormal screening results, generally recommend screening with a Pap test at least every three years, many women – maybe as many as half – do not receive the recommended screening. This is often due to clinicians not offering the test,” Niccolai said.
The state of Connecticut is offering cervical cancer screenings at no charge for eligible women through the Department’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. For more information on the program, please visit www.ct.gov/dph and select “Breast and Cervical Cancer” under “Featured Links” or call the Department of Public Health at (860) 509-7804.