They ask women to participate in cervical cancer screening

In celebration of the European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, with the aim of raising awareness and promoting the prevention of this tumor among women, Dr. Llanos Belmonte, specialist in gynecology and obstetrics of the Integrated Care Management of Albacete, recalls that it is a serious pathology caused by many factors, one of which is the human papillomavirus (HPV).

More than 600,000 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed every year, about 2,000 of them in Spain, but the worst part is that it causes more than 4,500 deaths worldwide, 700 of them in Spain. In the province of Albacete, according to the AECC Cancer Observatory, 55 cases of this tumor were diagnosed in women in the province of Albacete in 2023.

Cervical cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the cells of the cervix, the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina.

According to Dr. Belmonte, in recent decades, a direct connection between the human papillomavirus and the appearance of this tumor has been confirmed, therefore, the incidence of this cancer in developed countries is lower than in developing countries. there are no screening programs or access to public healthcare like in Spain.

The CHUA gynecologist insisted that the main tool for the prevention of cervical cancer is screening, in addition to the human papillomavirus vaccine, which has been a reality in the vaccination schedule for two decades, and the avoidance of contracting this virus through unprotected sexual transmission.

Dr. Belmonte assured that the big problem with cervical cancer is that, unlike other types of cancer, it affects young women between the ages of 30 and 60 and in a large number of cases it manifests itself in advanced stages. Consequently, the chances of cure and survival increase significantly. decreased.

“Human papillomavirus has the ability to integrate into the cells it infects and turn them into cancer, which can occur in various areas of the human anatomy, it can affect the female genital tract (causing cancer of the cervix, vulva and vagina). , oral cavity and pharynx; on the penis and anus,” added the CHUA obstetrics and gynecology specialist, who, however, noted that “thanks to screening, the incidence of this cancer and diagnosed cases are decreasing, mainly because it detects lesions in precancerous stages, we can detect “the tumor occurs before cancer develops because it takes about 20 years from the time of infection with HPV to the development of cancer.”

Until a few years ago, Dr. Belmonte said, this cancer could be diagnosed using cytology. Over the past four years, Castilla-La Mancha has introduced a type of population-based screening that, in women over 30 years of age and older, consists of determining the human papillomavirus every five years and cytological examination in younger women under 30 years of age. , which is repeated every three years, instead of the opportunistic one, which previously acted at the request of women who turned to it. Thus, according to Dr. Llanos Belmonte, seven out of every eight women who had this type of cancer were not tested.

(More information in the print edition and in the La Tribuna de Albacete app: (https://latribunadealbacete.promecal.es))