Treatment options may include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and is based on the kind of cancer, the patient’s age, health history, how far the cancer has spread (stage), response to any previous treatments, and whether a patient wishes to have children.
Surgery for Cervical Cancer Surgery may be recommended to remove pre-cancerous tissue. Surgery may be minimal or more extensive, depending on whether the cancer has spread.
Radiation for Cervical Cancer Radiation may be used when cancer has spread beyond the cervix, says the American Cancer Society.
Chemotherapy for Cervical Cancer Concurrent chemoradiation combines chemotherapy with radiation therapy to boost the efficacy of radiation. Drugs used in this treatment include cisplatin (Platinol), fluorouracil (Adrucil), carboplatin (Paraplatin), paclitaxel (Taxol), topotecan (Hycamtin), or gemcitabine (Gemzar). (6)
Prevention of Cervical Cancer
The American Cancer Society states that regular Pap smears to identify precancerous changes in cells combined with testing for HPV is the best way to prevent cervical cancer.
According to the National Cancer Institute, HPV vaccination with a vaccine, such as Gardasil 9 or Cervarix, can help prevent infection by the types of HPV that cause most cases of cervical cancers. But achieving widespread HPV vaccination rates continues to be a problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of 2017, only 49 percent of adolescents were up-to-date on the HPV vaccine, which is ideally administered at age 11 or 12. Geography and access to care also plays a role. Fewer adolescents in rural areas, compared with adolescents in urban areas, are getting the HPV vaccine. (7)
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