Can You Die From Cervical Cancer?

On June 15, 2006, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a combination of two chemotherapy drugs, hycamtin and cisplatin for women with late-stage (IVB) cervical cancer treatment. 50 Combination treatment has significant risk of neutropenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia side effects. Hycamtin is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline.

Prognosis depends on the stage of the cancer. With treatment, the 5-year relative survival rate for the earliest stage of invasive cervical cancer is 92%, and the overall (all stages combined) 5-year survival rate is about 72%. These statistics may be improved when applied to women newly diagnosed, bearing in mind that these outcomes may be partly based on the state of treatment five years ago when the women studied were first diagnosed.

With treatment, 80 to 90% of women with stage I cancer and 60 to 75% of those with stage II cancer are alive 5 years after diagnosis. Survival rates decrease to 30 to 40% for women with stage III cancer and 15% or fewer of those with stage IV cancer 5 years after diagnosis. According to the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, survival improves when radiotherapy is combined with cisplatin-based chemotherapy.

As the cancer metastasizes to other parts of the body, prognosis drops dramatically because treatment of local lesions is generally more effective than whole body treatments such as chemotherapy. Interval evaluation of the patient after therapy is imperative. Recurrent cervical cancer detected at its earliest stages might be successfully treated with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or a combination of the three.

Thirty-five percent of patients with invasive cervical cancer have persistent or recurrent disease after treatment. Average years of potential life lost from cervical cancer are 25.3 (SEER Cancer Statistics Review 1975-2000, National Cancer Institute (NCI)). Approximately 4,600 women were projected to die in 2001 in the US of cervical cancer (DSTD), and the annual incidence was 13,000 in 2002 in the US, as calculated by SEER.

Thus the ratio of deaths to incidence is approximately 35.4%. Regular screening has meant that pre cancerous changes and early stage cervical cancers have been detected and treated early. Figures suggest that cervical screening is saving 5,000 lives each year in the UK by preventing cervical cancer.

55 About 1,000 women per year die of cervical cancer in the UK. Worldwide, cervical cancer is second most common57 and the fifth deadliest cancer in women. 58 It affects about 16 per 100,000 women per year and kills about 9 per 100,000 per year.

59 Approximately 80% of cervical cancers occur in developing countries60 Worldwide, in 2008, it was estimated that there were 473,000 cases of cervical cancer, and 253,500 deaths per year. In the United States, it is only the 8th most common cancer of women. The median age at diagnosis is 48.

Hispanic women are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer than the general population. 62 In 1998, about 12,800 women were diagnosed in the US and about 4,800 died. 2 In 2008 in the US an estimated 11,000 new cases were expected to be diagnosed, and about 3,870 were expected to die of cervical cancer.

51 Among gynecological cancers it ranks behind endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer. The incidence and mortality in the US are about half those for the rest of the world, which is due in part to the success of screening with the Pap smear. 2 The incidence of new cases of cervical cancer in the United States was 7 per 100,000 women in 2004.

63 Cervical cancer deaths decreased by approximately 74% in the last 50 years, largely due to widespread Pap smear screening. 57 The annual direct medical cost of cervical cancer prevention and treatment prior to introduction of the HPV vaccine was estimated at $6 billion. In the European Union, there were about 34,000 new cases per year and over 16,000 deaths due to cervical cancer in 2004.

In the United Kingdom, the age-standardised (European) incidence is 8.5/100,000 per year (2006). It is the twelfth most common cancer in women, accounting for 2% of all female cancers, and is the second most common cancer in the under 35s females, after breast cancer. The UK's European age-standardised mortality is 2.4/100,000 per year (2007) (Cancer Research UK Cervical cancer statistics for the UK).

64 With a 42% reduction from 1988-1997 the NHS implemented screening programme has been highly successful, screening the highest risk age group (25–49 years) every 3 years, and those ages 50–64 every 5 years. In Canada, an estimated 1,300 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2008 and 380 will die. In Australia, there were 734 cases of cervical cancer (2005).

The number of women diagnosed with cervical cancer has dropped on average by 4.5% each year since organised screening began in 1991 (1991–2005). 66 Regular two-yearly Pap tests can reduce the incidence of cervical cancer by up to 90% in Australia, and save 1,200 Australian women dying from the disease each year. Epidemiologists working in the early 20th century noted that cervical cancer behaved like a sexually transmitted disease.

Cervical cancer was common in female sex workers. It was rare in nuns, except for those who had been sexually active before entering the convent. It was more common in the second wives of men whose first wives had died from cervical cancer.

It was rare in Jewish women. In 1935, Syverton and Berry discovered a relationship between RPV (Rabbit Papillomavirus) and skin cancer in rabbits. This led to the suspicion that cervical cancer could be caused by a sexually transmitted agent.

Initial research in the 1940s and 1950s put the blame on smegma (e.g. Heins et al.