Aggressive Cervical Cancer on Rise Among Young Women: Peer-Reviewed Science

Aggressive Cervical Cancer on Rise Among Young Women: Peer-Reviewed Science
A bottle of the Human Papillomavirus vaccination at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine on September 21, 2011 in Miami, Florida. The vaccine for human papillomavirus, or HPV, is given to prevent a sexually transmitted infection that can cause cancer. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Jennifer Margulis
Joe Wang
Updated:
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A new study from researchers at the University of California Los Angeles found that cervical cancer cases are on the rise in younger women. Specifically, the study discovered that the number of women with late-stage (stage 4) cervical cancer, which has a death rate of 83 percent within five years, has increased.
Their peer-reviewed original research, which was published in the International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer, found that advanced stage cervical cancer is rising at a rate of 1.3 percent per year. The greatest increases are among white women living in Southern states between the ages of 40 and 44. For this subgroup, stage 4 cervical cancer is rising at a rate of 4.5 percent annually.

Worse for Women of Color

However, more generally, women of color have more than 50 percent higher rates of end-stage cervical cancer than white women: 1.55 per 100,000 compared to .92 per 100,000, according to the researchers.
Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning journalist and author of “Your Baby, Your Way: Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Parenting Decisions for a Happier, Healthier Family.” A Fulbright awardee and mother of four, she has worked on a child survival campaign in West Africa, advocated for an end to child slavery in Pakistan on prime-time TV in France, and taught post-colonial literature to nontraditional students in inner-city Atlanta. Learn more about her at JenniferMargulis.net
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