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When women talking about cervical cancer, ‘Is it hereditary?’ and ‘Is it curable?’ are some of the most frequently asked questions! As well as the name of the disease implies, it is a kind of cancer that occurs /attacks the cervix ‘an important part of female reproductive system’. What else you need to know about facts of the disease?
You might also be interested to know more about complementary therapies and natural remedies for cervical cancer in here, before continuing! Though the exact cause of this disease is still no clear, but doctors have confirmed some conditions or factors that increase your risk of developing cervical cancer.
Furthermore, early diagnosis of the disease is also very crucial. If you are diagnosed with the disease at early stages, don’t worry -- the disease is much easier to be treated and cured at early stage.
So, is cervical cancer hereditary?
Having a first degree (such as daughter, sister, or mother) family history of cervical cancer may put someone at higher risk of having the disease -- according to some studies. However, there is no clearly answer to confirm whether this increased risk because of inherited faulty genes or other factors (particularly such lifestyle factors), or both!
The result of these studies may sound worrying. Though family history of cervical cancer may contribute to increase your risk, but many experts still believe that the risk is still very small. In fact, most women with a family history of cervical cancer don’t have /develop the disease -- according to the U.K Cancer Research Organization.
What are major factors that increase your risk?
In many cases, the infection of HPV (Human papilloma virus) is the leading factor in increased risk of developing cervical cancer. This infection usually spread through intercourse, that’s why women who have high risk sex behavior at high risk of having the infection which then also at high risk of developing cervical cancer.
Another fact is that most women with HPV infection don’t develop the disease. Most of sexually active women will have HPV infection at some points of their lifetime. But in many cases, this infection is not harmful and it goes away on its own.
But in some women, the infection doesn’t go away on its own and can survive /live for many years, which then may cause an increased risk of developing cervical cancer. Therefore to keep safe, it’s much better to stay away from the infection (keep far away from any bad behavior that increases your risk of having the infection).
As mentioned before, most women infected with HPV infection are not diagnosed with cervical cancer. This suggests that there are also other factors that increase your risk, these include:
- Cigarette smoking.
- Too young of having intercourse (at an early age).
- Having a weak body’s immune system.
- And high sex risk behavior (particularly such as having a high number of sexual partners, doing intercourse without condom, etc).
*** Having one or some of these risk factors doesn’t mean that we will definitely develop the disease, but these risk factors can increase your risk of developing cervical cancer. Discuss more with a doctor for in-depth information!
Early diagnosis /detection for cervical cancer
Unfortunately, the signs and symptoms of cervical cancer in women are usually unnoticeable at early stage. This is one of reasons that can increase your chance of having a late diagnosis.
According to the American Cancer Society -- you should see a doctor promptly if have one /some of the following conditions:
- Pain during intercourse!
- Experiencing abnormal vaginal discharge.
- And having abnormal bleeding from the vagina, like bleeding in the postmenopausal (after menopause), spotting /bleeding between your menstrual periods, experiencing heavier /longer menstruations than usual, or bleeding after intercourse.
As mentioned before, treating the cancer cells at early stages are much easier than treating them at later stages. That’s why once again - it’s very crucial and important to diagnose the cancer as earlier as possible for better prognosis of patient. You may also like to know about cervical cancer survival rates and prognosis, before continuing!
You should know that there are a lot of types of HPV (over 1000 different types). Though currently there are available vaccines to prevent HPV infection, but these vaccines are still not able to protect your body from all viruses that cause cervical cancer.
Therefore, it’s also important for you to take a routine pap test. This is a kind of regular screening test to keep monitoring the cells on the cervix. It can be very useful to find any abnormal cells on the cells on the cervix early, so thus the preventive steps can be used to treat these abnormal cells before going to become cells of cancer. -- In fact, many doctors still believe that a routine pep test is still the best option to effectively prevent cervical cancer!
If your pep test results something wrong with the cells of the cervix, or if you have some symptoms /signs of cervical cancer, then you may undergo to get some further tests to find a clearly diagnosis! To diagnose a cancer on the cervix, your doctor may perform one /some of the following tests or procedures:
Physical exam and medical history
First, doctors usually need to know about your risk factors, overall health, and perform a physical exam. The physical exam is usually also intended to analyze the performance of your lymph nodes, whether or not they have been invaded by cells of cancer.
Colposcopy
It is a kind of test to examine the cervix. In this procedure, doctor usually will use microscope (special microscope) to find abnormal cells on the cervix. If doctor finds unusual areas, a small sample of cells will be taken for further analysis (biopsy).
Biopsy
One of functions of this procedure is to take a sample of cells /tissues from the cervix with special biopsy tools which then will be analyzed to find whether or not these cells are cancer!
Cone biopsy
As the name suggests, this procedure is purposed to take a cone-shaped area of cervix, which helpful for doctors to more clearly obtain cervical cells (deeper layers of cervix) for laboratory testing. In addition, to cut away the cervix’s tissue, doctor may use electrified wire loop, laser, or scalpel.
*** And after making a clearly diagnosis of cervical cancer, the further tests are usually purposed to find and determine the stage of cancer.
More facts of cervical cancer!
The following are other facts of the disease:
- Pelvic pain and abnormal bleeding are usually the most common signs of the disease.
- The chance to cure the disease is good if the disease is diagnosed at early stage. Laser surgery, cauterization, and cryosurgery are some effectively options that may work successfully to cure precancerous changes of the cervix cells.
- Cervical cancer usually needs different approaches of the treatment than cancer that starts in other parts of female’s uterus.
- Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are common choices of the treatment.
- Though the stage and type of the cervical cancer significantly influence the prognosis and survival rate, but overall health of patient during treatment also can give a significant contribution to encourage the successful of the cancer treatment.
