Cervical cancer and HPV awareness

Now is a time when many people resolve to do better for themselves in the year ahead – we promise to lose weight, be more patient, volunteer. And that lasts until about the time Valentine’s Day chocolates arrive. Coincidence? Probably not. This year, make a resolution to keep: Encourage the women in your life to get a Pap smear once a year.

A Pap smear is a microscopic examination of cells found on a woman’s cervix, preformed through a routine pelvic examination. USA Today recently reported this one test has led to a 70 percent drop in the U.S. cervical cancer death rates over the past six decades. January is cervical cancer awareness month, and if you’re a woman, there is no better time to visit your healthcare provider about how you can prevent this common, but largely preventable, cancer.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), worldwide, cervical cancer is the third most common type of cancer in women. While less common in the United States, here, African-American women develop this cancer about 50 percent more often than white women, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). This might be because African-American women are not taking advantage of screening. Up to 80 percent of all American women with newly diagnosed invasive cervical cancer have not had a Pap test in the past five years, and many of these women have never had a Pap test, according to ACS.

There is no excuse for skipping out on this important health screening that takes only minutes and is relatively painless. Both cervical and breast cancer testing is now more available to medically underserved women through the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. This program offers cervical cancer early detection testing to women without health insurance for free or at very little cost. Contact the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov or 1-800-CDC-INFO for information about screening programs in your area.

Cervical cancer is frequently caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually-transmitted virus in the U.S., according to the CDC. In fact, it’s so common that the CDC reports that at least 80 percent of women will have acquired genital HPV infection by age 50. Don’t panic: Most HPV infections go away naturally, and having HPV doesn’t mean you’ll get cancer, you are simply at a higher risk. There are hundreds of types of HPV and only certain, high-risk strains can sometimes cause cancer if they persist and change cells over many years. But you can’t know if you have HPV, and if so, what type of HPV, unless you get appropriate screening tests. Most often, HPV is without noticeable symptoms. Smoking also will double your chances of getting cervical cancer, so in conjunction with the pelvic exam, a woman can dramatically reduce her chances of getting this potentially deadly cancer.

More than ever before, medicines also have the power to provide hope in the fight against cervical cancer. A new vaccine protects against four types of HPV, which together cause 70 percent of cervical cancers, according to the CDC. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved this vaccine for use in girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26. And, a recent survey by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) revealed 135 medicines (including vaccines) are in development for cancers disproportionately affecting women, including 17 for cervical cancer.

For those who need help affording their pre scri ption medicines, including the HPV vaccine, there are programs that can help. The Partnership for Pre scri ption Assistance (1-888-4PPA-NOW or www.pparx.org), a national program sponsored by America’s pharmaceutical research companies, provides a single point of access to information on 475 patient assistance programs. More than 2,500 brand-name and generic pre scri ption medicines are available through the participating programs. So far, the program has already helped more than 4.5 million people in need nationwide.

There are two critical ways to pre-vent cervical cancer: the HPV vaccine and regular Pap tests. Make 2008 the year to talk to your healthcare professional about both.