BY SANDRA GUY
Don’t be a statistic. January – the month dedicated to cervical cancer awareness – affords the perfect time to get a PAP test to ensure you’re healthy.
Nearly 13,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, but 93 percent of the cases are considered preventable with the appropriate vaccination and screening (Pap and HPV tests), experts say.
Chicago has some of the highest rates of HPV – the virus that causes genital warts and abnormal PAP smears, and the most common type of sexually transmitted disease. Women of color are most affected, partly because they have lower rates of getting vaccinated for HPV.
The University of Illinois-Chicago College of Medicine and UI Health (the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System) is aiming to identify patients at risk for a delayed or late diagnosis, as part of a two-year, $500,000 grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These patients might have a suspicious lesion on an X-ray or an abnormal finding. We’ll be able to work within existing protocols to carve out a rapid diagnostic pathway,” said Dr. Heather Pendergast, associate dean of clinical affairs for the UIC College of Medicine and vice chair of academic affairs for the UI-Health Department of Emergency Medicine.
About 79 million Americans are infected with HPV (the virus), and about 14 million become infected each year. It’s so common that at least 75 percent of sexually active men and women will get it at some point. People often have no HPV symptoms.
Here’s how to stay aware:
· Guidelines for how often to have PAP smears vary, depending on age, medical history and other factors, so ask your doctor the proper protocol, and follow it.
· Ask your doctor, ‘What other tests should I have?’
· Eat a diet high in antioxidants. An article titled “Cervical Cancer and Antioxidants” concluded “the literature clearly establishes both a protective and a therapeutic advantage in selected antioxidants including vitamins A, C, and E, CoQ10, EGCG, resveratrol, and vegetable lycopenes. Similarly, it may be contended that the higher incidence of disease in lower socioeconomic groups may be related to dietary deficiency of those same substances.”