A new study from researchers at the University of California Los Angeles found that cervical cancer cases are on the rise in younger women. Specifically, the study discovered that the number of women with late-stage (stage 4) cervical cancer, which has a death rate of 83 percent within five years, has increased.
Their peer-reviewed original research, which was published in the International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer, found that advanced stage cervical cancer is rising at a rate of 1.3 percent per year. The greatest increases are among white women living in Southern states between the ages of 40 and 44. For this subgroup, stage 4 cervical cancer is rising at a rate of 4.5 percent annually.
Worse for Women of Color
However, more generally, women of color have more than 50 percent higher rates of end-stage cervical cancer than white women: 1.55 per 100,000 compared to .92 per 100,000, according to the researchers.This research follows on the coattails of another study (pdf) on cervical cancer published in the same journal in November of 2021. That study, disturbingly, found that women between the ages of 30 and 34 were experiencing “a particularly high increase” of aggressive cervical cancer, at a rate of 3.39 percent per year.
Using data submitted to the United States Cancer Statistics program, as well as national survey findings collected over 18 years (from 2001 to 2018), the UCLA scientists found that 29,715 women were diagnosed with late-stage cervical cancer.
Their analysis of the underlying causes of this worrisome upward trend included rising rates of obesity among women, women delaying childbirth, and lack of early screening in the form of pap smears for early detection of adenocarcinoma and others reproductive cancers.
However, pointing to advanced maternal age as a possible factor does not take into account the studies that have found that women who have children later in life seem to actually live longer than women who give birth at younger ages.
Lack of early detection, on the other hand, may partly explain the increase in end-stage cervical cancers.
“If I can sample some cervical cancer cells, I can find cancer early before it is symptomatic, or even pre-cancer,” Dr. James Alexander, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Nevada Reno Medical School, told an ABC TV journalist.
Indeed, one small study from Sweden, published in 2012, found that women who have had their cancer detected by way of pap smears have had a 92 percent cure rate, compared to only 66 percent among women diagnosed with cancer because of symptoms.
A larger study published in 2020, also out of Sweden, showed that regular cervical cancer screenings were associated with reduced risk of developing more serious disease. “Our findings emphasize the importance of routine participation in cervical screening,” the authors wrote.
The human papilloma virus, or HPV, is a group of over 150 viruses, some which have been associated with genital warts, and others which have been associated with cervical and other cancers.
HPV Vaccines
Because HPV is associated with cancer, a vaccine against HPV was approved for women by the FDA in 2006 and for men in 2011. There was a lot of industry-sponsored excitement about this new “vaccine against cancer,” but one of the earliest concerns about the HPV vaccine was that its widespread use might lead women to skip getting pap smears for early detection.Another concern was that there are more than 40 subtypes of HPV that may cause cancer, but of the three vaccines that have been licensed in the United States, the broadest only covers nine types of HPV.
Finally, doctors and scientists—including Paul Thomas, M.D., an integrative physician based in Portland, Oregon (who has co-authored two books with Jennifer Margulis)—have expressed concerns about the high rates of adverse events and even deaths recorded in the data from the original HPV vaccine trials.
In 2008, Charlotte Haug, M.D./Ph.D., wrote an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine urging caution. “Despite great expectations,” Haug wrote, “we still lack sufficient evidence of an effective vaccine against cervical cancer.” The real impact, Haug insisted, “will not be observable for several decades.”
More than a decade later, however, since the widespread use of the HPV vaccines by both men and women, HPV-related cancers have not declined.
Indeed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), HPV-related cancers have significantly increased in the past 15 years: in 2015, 43,000 Americans were diagnosed with an HPV-related cancer compared to only 30,000 in 1999. That CDC briefing showed that, while in that time period some HPV-related cancers rates seemed to decrease, rates of oropharyngeal and anal HPV-related cancers rose quite a bit.
The UCLA research, however, shows no declines in cervical cancer rates. “Even with screening and vaccination, there is not one racial/ethnic group, region in the USA, or age group where distant stage cervical cancer has been decreasing over the last 18 years,” the scientists wrote.
This article headline and content have been updated to remove the implications that were not directly indicated by the study.The Epoch Times regrets this error.
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