A recent study conducted by Swedish researchers shows that women who have
been treated for early signs of cervical cancer have a high risk of
developing the disease years later. The study is published in the British
Medical Journal.
Researchers studied data from 133,000 women who had been diagnosed with the
most severe pre-cancerous lesions, namely carcinoma-in-situ, between 1958
and 2002. They found that women who had been treated for this pre-cancerous
lesion were twice as likely to develop cervical cancer as normal female
population and seven times more likely to develop vaginal cancer.
Researchers recommend that in such cases women should do regular screening
for at least 25 years after the treatment. The study’s authors discovered
that the risk became higher if women were older at the time of diagnosis and
even higher after the age of 50.
UK guidelines for women who have been treated for carcinoma-in-situ
recommend annual screening for 10 years. The National Health Service (NHS)
offers cervical screening for UK women between the ages of 25 and 49, once
in three years, and once every five years until 64.
The study also shows that, the more tissue is left after the treatment, the
higher the risk is. After 1991, treatments were trying to let more tissue
intact in order to preserve women’s fertility.
Dr Anne Szarewski, honorary senior lecturer at the Cancer Research UK Centre
for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics in London, said that “it should
be remembered that the majority of women who are found to have high grade
cervical abnormalities are in their 30s and early 40s, a time when they may
have not completed - or even started - their family.”
This led to a policy of weighing the risk of cancer and the advantages of
avoiding hysterectomy and other treatments which would affect their
fertility. Szarewski also said that a long term follow-up in these women’s
cases should be considered.
Source : © 2007 - eFluxMedia
