Chennai

Persistent infection with high-risk HPV has been established to be the principal cause of cervical cancer in women. HPV implication in greater than 99 percent of cervical cancers worldwide, an important prevention strategy is regular screening to know a woman’s individual risk and finding disease early, before the cancer develops.

Stating that India accounts for 20 percent of world-wide prevalence of Cervical Cancer, it has an incidence and mortality rate higher than most regions including South East Asia, Dr V Shanta, Chairperson of the Institute, said, “Over 1.2 lakh cervical cancer cases are detected in India annually, making it the second leading cause of cancer after breast cancer. Chennai stands fourth among the top registries in India with the highest incidence of cervical cancer in women.”

Stressing on the fact that it is preventable, she said, “Adopting a comprehensive approach that includes vaccination, effective screening, early diagnosis and treatment has the potential to reduce the existing mortality relating to this cancer. In India, the absence of organised screening programs has contributed to this situation. We in Tamil Nadu, however, have implemented a state-wide cancer registry and the Government of Tamil Nadu has been running a state-wide screening program.”

It may be noted that currently, the most commonly used method of screening employed in most countries, cytology-based pap smears, has contributed considerably to reducing incidence and mortality from cervical cancer. Another screening method is HPV DNA testing, which has higher sensitivity than the cytological screening and can detect more precancerous lesionsthan cytology.

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