In LA, cases of cervical cancer increase due to lack of access to screening tests

Angeles Cruz Martinez

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Newspaper La Jornada
Friday, November 4, 2022, p. 19

Cartagena. Cervical cancer should not exist in Latin American countries, as it no longer does in the United States and Europe, but due to lack of access to screening tests and after two years of the covid-19 pandemic, cases are on the rise. Up to 80 percent of patients arrive with tumors that have already invaded the areas surrounding the uterus and in an advanced stage, said specialists from Brazil and Mexico.

Participants in the Women, Health and Equality seminar, organized by the Roche pharmaceutical laboratory, pointed out that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine prevents up to 97 percent of the risk of tumor development.

Julio César Teixeira, a researcher at the University of Campinas in Brazil, explained that the impact of national immunization campaigns will be seen in the next 15 years. In Brazil, the strategy began less than a decade ago.

In the case of Mexico, Lucely Cetina, director of the Comprehensive Model Program for Cervical Cancer Care (Micaela) of the National Cancer Institute, commented that the application of the biological began between 2004 and 2005, but was stopped during the health emergency due to the coronavirus.

Fewer than a thousand girls received the immunogen in that period. Now we are waiting for the authorities to resume the vaccination plan in 11-year-old girls, although there is already scientific evidence that it can also be applied to older women who maintain an active sexual life and have previously had a cervical lesion for HPV treated. This is because the virus can come back.

Papilloma virus, main precursor

In this regard, Marieli Alfonzo, manager of Roche in Colombia, referred to information from the World Health Organization (WHO) according to which 90 percent of people (men and women) will be infected with HPV at some point in their lives, which is transmitted sexually. This is the main precursor of cervicoßπuterine cancer.

For low- and middle-income countries, it should be a priority issue because there 90 percent of cases with this neoplasm are diagnosed and even more serious is that only 30 percent of women over 40 years of age undergo preventive tests and early detection of diseases, including cervical and breast tumors, diabetes and blood pressure.

Cetina also commented that in addition to vaccines and screening tests, the Pap smear in particular, access to highly specialized health services and the best medical treatments must be guaranteed, which for now it is unattainable for our countries, where the most affected are poor women and low educational level.

The specialist highlighted another recent phenomenon, which is the appearance of cervical tumors in young women. About 15 percent of those affected are between the ages of 20 and 30. She explained that the Micaela program offers patients treatment for cancer and other conditions such as pain, malnutrition and emotional disorders.

Teixeira, also coordinator of the Cervical Cancer Screening Program in Brazil, added that it is also not acceptable for older women to continue presenting the neoplasm because once they are infected with HPV there is a gap of 15 years in which through the papanicolao small lesions should be detected, treated and the risk of cancer eliminated.

He said that in Brazil, the actual coverage of the study is 30 percent nationwide, despite the fact that the country has a free health system. For the same reason, mortality has remained unchanged. “It stays on a horizontal line,” he maintained.