The Israel Cancer Association announced the Cervical Cancer Awareness Week on January 19, 2020. Ahead of this week, the ICA along with the Ministry of Health published the most updated statistics as on cervical cancer in Israel as of January 2020. Due to the complexity of data collection, the most updated obtainable information at the National Cancer Registry refers to 2016 data. According to statistics, 232 Israeli women were diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer in 2016, of which 187 are Jewish women comprising 81% of the total patients; 22 Arab women comprising 9% of the patients and 23 "other" women comprising 10% of the total patients for that year.
Prof. Lital Keinan-Boker, Director of the Israel Center for Disease Control (ICDC) of the Ministry of Health, explained: "Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women in the world, after breast, colorectal cancer and lung cancer, with over half a million new cases worldwide each year. In Israel, cervical cancer is not prevalent, and the incidence rate (number of new cases) are among the lowest in the Western world. The main risk factors are certain types of HPV, smoking and contracting the AIDS virus. The natural course of the disease includes damage to the cervical tissue and a progression from a precancerous cervical lesion to cervical adenocarcinoma in situ or invasive cervical cancer. A considerable amount of lesions disappear on their own and do not develop into invasive cancer."
Please click here to view the Ministry of Health Director General Circular (in Hebrew).
A study held in Australia aimed to identify the earliest years in which the annual age-standardized incidence of cervical cancer in Australia could decrease significantly by incorporating the Australian National HPV Vaccination Program screening initiative down to a minimal threshhold where cervical cancer could be considered to be eliminated. Australia was the first country in the world to initiate a national publicly-funded HPV vaccination program back in 2007 and a high level of compliance to taking the vaccine was recorded among both sexes. In 2017, organized cervical screening in Australia transitioned from cytology-based screening every 2 years for women aged from 20 to 69 years, to primary HPV testing every 5 years for women aged 25–69 years (and exit testing for women aged 70–74 years.) The researchers used a model that incorporated different data on the Australian population as well as the vaccine program for boys and girls and the cervical cancer screening program to estimate the age-standardized incidence of cervical cancer in Australia through 2100. This, considering that the vaccines were upgraded in 2018 to include nonavalent (nine strands) of HPV (instead of four). According to the model results, the estimate is that the cervical cancer incidence threshold of six new cases per 100?000 women each year will be achieved in 2020, and by 2028, cervical cancer incidence rate will reach a threshold of four new cases per 100?000 women in Australia. Further estimates indicate that by 2066, the annual incidence of cervical cancer will decrease and remain at fewer than one case per 100?000 women if screening for HPV every 5 years continues parallel to the nonavalent vaccine. Alternately, incidence rates may be fewer than three cases per 100?000 women if the nonavalent vaccine alone is administered, without adhering to the 5-year HPV screening program. In addition, mortality from cervical cancer is predicted to decrease to one new case per 100?000 women annually by 2034 in Australia.
To sum up, the researchers claim that combining the HPV vaccine with the national screening program allows for a probable chance of eradicating the disease in in Australia in the future.
Other factors that may increase the risk are use of birth control pills and smoking. This study focused on women who are expose to smoke from passive smoking. The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 14 eligible studies from different databases of different countries (Korea, Thailand, Japan, India, Spain and the U.S.). which focused on the relation of passive smoking to cervical cancer in all stages of the disease in different databases; the meta-analysis included 384,995 participants in total from all the studies.
For the sake of statistical processing, the other variables were disabled that increase the risk of developing cervical cancer, such as birth control pills, early-age first pregnancy, contraction of HPV and active smoking. According to findings, there is a positive relation between passive smoking and the risk of developing cervical cancer.
From the data shown in all the studies, the risk of cervical cancer among women exposed to passive smoking was 70% higher versus women who were not. Researchers add that implementation of the anti-smoking policy may protect people who have never smoked, and may also help increase the number of smokers who quit.
The article was published in the Medicine Journal, July 2018 issue and presented by ICA in marking Cervical Cancer Awareness Day 2019
To sum up, the researchers conclude that the study data emphasizes the preventative role of healthy dietary patterns such as the MD against the risk of developing +CIN2 and cervical cancer, and warn against the damage that may be caused by unhealthy eating habits.
The article was published in the Nutrients Journal, April 2018 issue and presented by ICA in marking Cervical Cancer Awareness Day 2019
It is known that the loss of someone close may lead to the development of an array of physiological and emotional diseases. Investigators from various medical centers and universities in Sweden sought to explore the link between loss and bereavement, on the one hand, and the risk of contracting the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and cervical cancer morbidity, on the other hand. The exposure to HPV is extensive and normally not dangerous; however a small number of HPV genotypes increase the risk of developing cervical cancer.
The research study was based for the most part on cervical cancer statistics of the Swedish Cancer Register, spanning the years 1969-20111, which included statistics on an estimated 14 million pap smears (cervical cancer screening), taken from an estimated 2.5 million women. The investigators divided the research data into three types of findings:
After the test findings were mapped, the investigators examined the subjects' data regarding their loss of a family member, and defined bereavement as the natural or unnatural death of a parent, child, spouse, or sibling; after weighting the various lifestyle variables, which may stimulate the emergence of findings such as: smoking, sexual behavior, use of oral contraceptives, and multiple abortions, the investigators arrived at the following conclusions:
The investigators conclude that bereavement may have an impact on the various stages of the development of cervical cancer. This is mainly due to the fact that the emotional stress involved in loss may increase the risk of contracting HPV among women who did not contract HPV in the past, as well as accelerate the progression of the disease from a pre-cancerous state to in situ, and from cervical cancer in situ to invasive cervical cancer. The article was published in the Cancer Research Journal, December 2015
Rising cervical cancer mortality in young Chinese women has been observed; cervical cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in China and developing countries. According to the annual report of China's National Cancer Registry, each year, over 100,000 women are diagnosed with the disease, constituting approximately a third of global cervical cancer cases.
One of the factors known and proven to increase the risk of contracting cervical cancer is active smoking (of the woman herself), however, there is no evidence regarding the association between passive smoking, due to exposure to a spouse's smoking, and the risk of contracting the disease.
In a first-ever research study, investigators in China sought to explore the link between active smoking, passive smoking, and their combination on the one hand, and the risk of cervical cancer mortality on the other hand.
The investigators compared the exposure to smoking of 1,865 Chinese urban women, aged 35 and up, who succumbed to cervical cancer, with that of women who succumbed to cervical cancer for reasons not related to smoking. The data was taken in part from an international survey conducted in China spanning the years 1989-1991, and in part from interviews that the investigators conducted with spouses of women who had died.
Based on the findings, it emerges that generally speaking, women who are exposed to smoking have a 51% higher risk of cervical cancer mortality than women who are not exposed to smoking, while the exposure to passive smoking increases the risk by 28%, the exposure to active smoking increase the risk by 49% and the exposure to both active and passive smoking increases the risk of cervical cancer mortality by 69%.Furthermore, the investigators found that the risk of cervical cancer mortality of active and passive smokers alike increases according to the time interval during which they were exposed to cigarette smoke, and the number of cigarettes per day:
Due to the research findings, the investigators call for the investment of efforts and resources in the prevention of smoking among men and women, to reduce the numerous hazards, one of which is cervical cancer among women.The article was published in the Cancer Causes & Control Journal, July 2015 issue
The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is very common and may produce lesions of the cervix, some of which may develop into cancer. Most of the lesions of the cervix have a low risk of developing into cervical cancer, and are transient, however, other lesions, with a high risk of becoming cancer – the CIN2 and CIN3 strains - for the most part are not transient, and increase the woman's risk of developing cervical cancer.
In a study conducted in the United States, the investigators sought to estimate the risk of contracting a pre-cancerous lesion – of the CIN2, CIN3 strain – or contracting cervical cancer, among women who had contracted inflammatory diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis, arthritis and lupus. One of the hypotheses was that their weakened cellular response, mainly if they take medications that suppress the immune system due to their disease, may spur repeated contracting of HPV, and in turn, may increase the risk of the emergence of pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix and cervical cancer.
The research study was based on a database consisting of an estimated 650,000 women, spanning the years 2001-2012, of whom an estimated 133,000 are patients suffering from one of the aforementioned diseases, and the remaining women served as a control group.
The investigators revealed that women who have arthritis and lupus have a 50% higher risk of contracting a pre-cancerous finding with a risk of developing into cervical cancer, as well as a higher risk of developing cervical cancer, compared to women who do not have inflammatory diseases.
Since cancer patients are usually treated with medications that partially suppress the immune system, as well with as steroids, the investigators don't know if the increase in risk is caused as a result of the suppression of the immune system caused by the medications, or caused by the disease itself, or by a combination of the both factors. They suggest continued study to investigate this important point. Similarly, the investigators recommend taking action to ensure early diagnosis, thereby preventing cancer from developing, or improving the chances of a cure, if indeed the patient has been diagnosed with cervical cancer.This article was published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases Journal, July 2015 issue