Cervical Cancer: Early detection, treatment crucial

Early detection and treatment of cervical cancer is vital in the fight against the deadly disease, which accounts for the second highest number of new cancer cases and cancer-related deaths in the country, according to doctors.

Cervical cancer is the second most deadly cancer for women just after breast cancer and India shares the burden of around one-fourth of the world cancer patients.

It is estimated that over 96,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and over 60,000 die from the disease in the country. Given such high mortality and morbidity, the awareness about the disease seems to be abysmally low.

"Cervical cancer is a sexually-transmitted disease (STD) but the awareness about the disease is extremely poor in common people, which makes containing cervical cancer a challenge.

While societal barriers prevent women from seeking medical help in advance, it forces women to come out at a later stage when the disease has reached an advanced stage,” Dr Anjila Aneja, Fortis La Femme, New Delhi said during a week-long awareness campaign for cervical cancer that began on January 21.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Aneja stressed the need to set up more pap smear test centres across the country.

Dr. Amita Shah, from the Columbia Asia Hospital, Gurgaon spoke about the need for early screening and vaccinations to prevent the debilitating disease.

Although the causes for cervical cancer is not yet clear, some of the risk factors include multiple sexual partners, early sexual activity, smoking, a weak immune system and other sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and HIV/AIDS.