Causes, Symptoms and Prevention of Cervical Cancer

Hello friends, I am Dr Vandana Jain I am practising gynaecologist at Ghaziabad. Today I am going to speak on cervical cancer and its prevention by vaccination. Cervical cancer is the cancer of cervix and cervix is the opening of the uterus and it prevents infection entering into the uterus. Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in India and in world by it accounts for 5 Lac newer cases diagnosed per year and that accounts for 2.5 Lac deaths per year worldwide, in India it accounts for 1,32,000 cases per year and 74,000 deaths per year. This is the most common cancer even the more common than breast cancer in India need accounts for a most common cause of death in females in India. What causes cervical cancer, cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus and it is a virus which is usually sexually transmitted but sometimes it can infect a body without any sexual contact. There are about 100 type of strains of HPV out of those hundred strains there are 30 strains which are sexually transmitted and out of those 30 there are 15 strains of HPV which are oncogenic, oncogenic means cancer-causing virus, this virus remains in a body for a long, for once to years and it takes about 10 to 20 years to change a normal cervix into a cancer cervix and in a lifetime of a lady about 50 to 80% females are infected by these viruses. Mostly these viruses going into spontaneous remission they will cure by itself but in some cases, it progresses into cancer. So when there is a vaccine we can prevent cancer from occurring and causing death. There are two types of cancer cervix adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma, adenocarcinoma is more lethal, more difficult to diagnose and it is mostly in young females. Pap smear is the type of screening test which can detect early changes of cancer in cervix or invasive carcinoma but remember Pap smear is a screening test only it can't detect infection by HPV and also this vaccination is to prevent infection by HPV and the age group for this vaccination is from 9 years to 45 years. So a young girl of 9 years can go for vaccination up to 45 years of age, if you are feeling symptoms and you are old, symptoms of cancer cervix can we vaginal discharge, postmenopausal bleeding, interquartile bleeding, intermenstrual bleeding, excessive foul smelling discharge, then you should consult a Doctor go for a Pap smear and go for a vaccination if you are too not late and for any further queries you can contact me at my clinic, you can book appointment through Lybrate and my clinic is complete women health care. Thank you.