Cervical Cancer - Risk Factors

Risk Factors

According to the American Cancer Society, nearly 10,000 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2006. However, the number of new cervical cancer cases has been declining steadily over the past decades. Fifty percent of cervical cancer diagnoses occur in women between 35 and 55 years of age, and slightly more than 20% occur in women over 65 years of age.

Some women (15%) develop cervical cancer before the age of 30. Although cervical cancer is rare in women under age 20, there has been an increase in cancer rates in younger women. Many young women are infected with multiple types of HPV, which can increase their risk of getting cervical cancer. If young women with early abnormal changes do not have regular examinations, they are at high risk for localized cancer by the time they are age 40 and for invasive cancer by age 50.

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Although it is the most preventable type of cancer, cervical cancer is ranked as the second most common cause of female death. Each year it kills an estimated 3,700 women in the U.S. and nearly 300,000 women worldwide.

In the United States, cervical cancer mortality rates plunged by 74% between 1955 and 1992 thanks to increased screening and early detection with the Pap test.

Socioeconomic and Ethnic Factors

Although the rate of cervical cancer has declined in both Caucasian and African American women over the past decades, it remains much more prevalent in African Americans and their death rates are twice as high as Caucasian women. Hispanic American women have more than twice the risk of invasive cervical cancer as Caucasian women also due to a lower rate of screening.

These differences, however, are almost certainly due to social and economic differences. Numerous studies report that high poverty levels are linked with low screening rates. In addition, lack of health insurance, limited transportation, and language difficulties hinder poor women’s access to screening services. Researchers are investigating programs that provide screening and treatment for women with abnormal Pap smears in a single visit. A 2001 study of women in the military found no differences in mortality rates when there is equal access to the same treatments.