Cervical Cancer

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Abstract

Thousands of women are dieing each year from cervical caner. However, these are senseless deaths can be prevented from simple detection and protection. The cervix is a very important part of a woman's body that helps her to produce life. Why then do many women treat their bodies so horribly by neglect? Education about the cause, effects, and treatments of cervical cancer will change this gross neglect. Awareness is the key to good health.

Studies have shown that women who exhibit certain behaviors have increased risk for cervical cancer. Every potential mother, daughter, aunt should know how to care for their bodies properly. This simple knowledge can save their lives. If cervical cancer increases to enormous rates as many diseases do, it will stop the growth of population. There can be no future without children, and their can be no children if there are no healthy women to give birth to them.

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The cervix is the lower, narrow part of the uterus (womb). The uterus, a hollow, pear-shaped organ, is located in a woman's lower abdomen, between the bladder and the rectum. The cervix forms a canal that opens into the vagina, which leads to the outside of the body. Like all other organs of the body, the cervix is made up of many types of cells. Normally, cells divide to produce more cells only when the body needs them. This orderly process helps keep us healthy. If cells keep dividing when new cells are not needed, a mass of tissue forms. This mass of extra tissue, called a growth or tumor, can be benign or malignant. Benign tumors are not cancer. They can usually be removed and, in most cases, they do not come back. Most important, cells from benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body. Polyps, cysts, and genital warts are types of benign growths of the cervix. Malignant tumors are cancer. Cancer cells can invade and damage tissues and organs near the tumor. Cancer cells also can break away from malignant tumor and enter the lymphatic system or the bloodstream. This is how cancer of the cervix can spread to other parts of the body, such as nearby lymph nodes, the rectum, the bladder, the bones of the spine, and the lungs. The spread of cancer is called metastasis. Cancer of the cervix also may be called cervical cancer. Like most cancers, it is named for the part of the body in which it begins. Cancers of the cervix also are named for the type of cell in which they begin. Most cervical cancers are squamous cell carcinomas. Squamous cells are thin, flat cells that form the surface of the cervix. When cancer spreads to another part of the body, the new tumor has the same kind of abnormal cells and the same name as the original (primary) cancer (www.averacancer.org/).

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According to Lois Ramondetta, M.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology at M. D. Anderson, Many women are unaware that a condition called human papillomavirus (HPV) is linked to cervical cancer. Becoming educated about HPV could help prevent cervical cancer if women follow through with recommended annual pap tests and seek treatment for the virus. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the name for a group of more than 100 viral subtypes, many of which can be contracted through sexual contact. HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the United States. According to the American Social Health Association, approximately 5.5 million new cases of sexually transmitted HPV infections are reported every year. At least 20 million Americans are already infected. Some types of HPV can cause abnormal tissue growth in the form of warts (papillomas). Some HPVs are associated with certain cancers and precancerous conditions (www.cancerwise.org).

The incidence of cervical cancer has been declining in the US due to the possibility of early detection by using the Pap smear. Yet in the year of 2000, according to the American Cancer Society 12,800 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and 4,600 deaths from the disease were recorded. Early warning signs may be persistent vaginal discharge or abnormal vaginal bleeding. Cervical cancer begins as a precancerous lesion called dysplasia that is detectable by the Pap smear, and 100% treatable, usually without hysterectomy. Sometimes it resolves without any treatment. More often, however, dysplasia progresses gradually over many years to cancer. When the cancer has

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not yet spread, it is called carcinoma in situ. Once the cancer is established, it usually spreads quickly into the nearby tissues or to other organs, such as the intestines, liver, and lung. Even in advanced stages when standard treatments have reached their limits, patients still have options. There are treatment modalities that have achieved, or contributed to, remarkable recoveries in a great variety of advanced cervical and other cancers by restoring the natural regulatory, repair and immune functions. Evidence is growing that in addition to the high risk factor of infection with the human papilloma virus or HPV that also causes genital warts, other chronic infections, nutritional