JUSTIN C.K. DAVIS, M.D.: Hi. My name is Dr. Justin Davis. Today, we'll discuss cervical cancer. You can also refer to uterine cancer to find out a little bit more information on cervical cancer as well. The cervix is part of a woman's reproductive organs and is the very tip of the uterus that pokes out into the vaginal canal. Cervical cancer is one of the leading cause of cancers for women's reproductive organs. Nearly half of cervical cancers will be diagnosed in women ages 35 to 55, so it does occur at relatively young ages in women quite often. We now know that cervical cancer is very strongly associated and caused by something called HPV, this stands for Human Papilloma Virus, and it's a virus that infects all people, both men and women, but in women can sometimes, little by little, change the cervical and vaginal cells, and eventually lead to cancer, and this doesn't happen all of the time. In fact, most of the time, it doesn't lead to cancer, but sometimes it can. What are the symptoms when you have cervical cancer? Well, part of the problem is that in early stages of cervical cancer, or the stages that lead up to cervical cancer, there usually are no symptoms at all, and that's why it's so very important to have screening exams that may detect it at early stages. Later, as the cancer becomes more advanced, common symptoms may be bleeding from the vagina, pain during intercourse, bleeding after intercourse, or pelvic pain. So what do we do to treat and to prevent cervical cancer? Well first, before we talk about treatment, prevention is very important. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers that we know of and that's because it usually occurs very slowly in a step-by-step process. You don't go from having nothing to cervical cancer; usually, you have small changes that eventually, if left untreated, will become cervical cancer. To detect this, we have something called Pap smears; that's part of a normal woman's annual vaginal exam where few cells are scraped off of the cervix and looked at under a microscope. When they're looked at, we can tell if they look normal or if they look like they're becoming or have become cancer. So that brings us to the treatment of cervical cancer or pre-cervical cancer. When detected early, and if the cells are noninvasive, often the cells can be either frozen off in a procedure called cryotherapy, sometimes they're burned off with lasers or other kinds of equipment, or sometimes, if the cancer is a little bit
deeper, they may need to be scraped off or the very tip of the cervix may need to be removed in something called a conization. When cervical cancer becomes more advanced and has spread to other local tissues, or spread more than that, then the treatment becomes a little bit more complicated. Sometimes the cervix needs to be removed altogether along with the uterus, this is called a hysterectomy. Also, in these kinds of cases, often a combination of surgery along with radiation and sometimes chemotherapy are also very useful in treating advanced stages of cervical cancer. So remember, cervical cancer is very preventable. The first step starts with trying to limit your exposure to the HPV virus. Now today, we have a vaccination against the HPV virus, so particularly, if you're a young woman, it's very important to talk to your doctor about this, and we now know that this vaccine is very effective against the HPV virus and may have the potential in the future to completely eliminate cervical cancer in all those who are vaccinated. The other important step is make sure that you have your regular screening exams and Pap smears because, again, this is a very preventable cancer. And if you have any kinds of symptoms that could be associated with cervical cancer, well first of all, there are many things that can cause these symptoms so don't panic, but it is very important whether it's cervical cancer, pre-cervical cancer, or something altogether different, to bring it to the attention of your doctor and have it assessed right away.
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