Cancer and its Treatment - Essay Example

Cervical cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women in the UK. Not only have the risk factors for this disease been determined but a reliable screening test in the form of a Pap smear has also been established. Moreover, the slow and predictable behavior pattern of this disease is now thoroughly understood. (Gaiotti, D., Chung, J., Iglesias, M., Nees, M., Baker, P.D., Evans, C.H., and Woodworth, C.D., 2000)

"Because of its effectiveness, a Pap smear can save your life," said Susan Spires, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UK College of Medicine. "All women should get annual Pap exams both for themselves and for those who love them." http://www.uky.edu/PR/News/MCPRNews/1999/pap.htm
The difficulties of LBC comprise: main changes in the routine compilation, transport, and storage of cervical scrape samples, and equally cytotechnologists and cytopathologists need further training to evaluate LBC slides.

Recently, there has been a study that suggested that a relationship exists between contraceptive pills and cancer of the cervix. It was claimed that women taking these pills had a higher incidence of this disease than did nonusers. However, knowledgeable experts have criticized this study on two important points. The so-called normal women used as a comparison to the group of women on pills may have differed in significant ways from the latter group. If the nonusers had less frequent sexual intercourse or fewer children, they would be expected to have a lower incidence of cervical cancer related to these factors alone. A woman with cervical cancer is often found to have begun intercourse early in her life, to have had several sexual partners, and to belong to a low socioeconomic class. Therefore, before comparisons of the effect of contraceptives on cervical cancer can be made, members of the pill-taking group and the non-pill-taking group must be similar in the age of first intercourse, number of partners, and social class. Precisely, there is no indication that hormonal contraception can cause cervical cancer. On the other hand, cancer of the lining of the uterus, as opposed to that of the cervix, may even be made less likely by the use of contraceptive pills (Hollander MC, Sheikh MS, Yu K, Zhan Q, Iglesias M, Woodworth C, and Fornace AJ Jr, 2001). During the past decade, many cases of uterine-lining cancer have been treated with high doses of progestins and in some cases, the extent of cancer has been lessened. It is felt by many physicians that progestins given as contraceptive pills may in the long run provide considerable protection against the development of this type of cancer.

It is probable, though dubious, that the trend might have been in the contradictory direction in the eighties and nineties. main changes in sexual behavior appear to have occurred throughout that time, as proofed by an amplify in the percentage of births outside marriage to thirty percent and in sexually spread infection, including a tenfold increase in the occurrence of anogenital warts between 1989 and 2000. Though, similar changes have occurred in the UK devoid of an analogous increase in cervical cancer mortality (Central Statistics Office, 2002).

The subsequent prospect is of a decline in survival, though this seems improbable in view of the general rise in cervical cancer survival all through Europe throughout this period.