Cervical Cancer - The Facts
- Cervical cancer can affect women of all ages but is most common in women between 30 – 45 years of age. It is the second most common cancer (after breast cancer) in women under 35 however is very rare in women under 25.
- Around 2,800 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year. More than half of these diagnoses are in women aged under 50 .
- In 2007, cervical cancer caused the death of 941 women in the UK, a figure which shows a 32% decade decrease in cervical cancer mortality. Cervical cancer death rates have fallen almost two-thirds in the last 30 years .
- Cervical screening began in Britain in the mid-1960s and the NHS Cervical Screening Programme was set up by the Department of Health in 1988 since when the incidence of cervical cancer has almost halved ii.
- Women between the ages of 25 and 60 in the UK are contacted at least every five years and asked to come for a cervical screening test.
*In England, women between 25 and 64 years are invited for screening.
*In Northern Ireland and Wales, women between 20 and 64 are invited for screening
*In Scotland, women between 20 and 60 are invited for screening .
- Early detection and treatment can prevent 75 per cent of cancers developing. The programme screens almost four million women in England each year. In March 2010, 79 per cent of eligible women attended screening sometime in the preceding five years .
- Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by a human papillomavirus (HPV). More than 100 types of HPV have been identified and infection is widespread in human populations but only a small proportion progresses to cancer.
Just two strains - 16 and 18 - are responsible for more than 70% of cervical cancers. The risk of HPV infection increases the more sexual partners a woman has and the more partners her sexual partners have had. However, infection can result from just one sexual experience .
- Since 2008, all girls in school year 8 (aged 12 to 13) in the UK have been routinely offered immunisation against HPV strains 16 and 18 - the two HPV types that cause the majority of cervical cancer .
- A two-year 'catch up' programme started in autumn 2008, to vaccinate girls between the ages of 13 and 17 (up to their 18th birthday) . Three vaccinations over a six-month period were needed for the best protection .
- Because the HPV vaccine does not protect against all cervical cancers, it is important for all women to have cervical screening later in life.
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