Vinegar Test can Detects Cervical Cancer and save many lives
What is Cervical Cancer?
Cervical cancer, or cancer of the cervix, is cancer of the entrance to the uterus (womb). The cervix is the narrow part of the lower uterus, often referred to as the neck of the womb. Cervical cancer occurs most commonly in women over the age of 30.
The American Cancer Society estimates that 11,270 diagnoses of cervical cancer will be made by the end of 2009 in the USA. Over 4,000 women in the USA die from cervical cancer each year.
The National Health Service (NHS), UK, says that over 3,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in the UK. Cervical cancer caused 941 deaths in the UK in 2007. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) at least 200,000 women worldwide die of cervical cancer each year. WHO adds that if the HPV vaccine is administered globally, hundreds of thousands of lives each year could eventually be saved?
There are two main types of cervical cancer
1. Ectocervix - flat cells - squamous cell cervical cancer
The ectocervix is the portion of the cervix that projects into the vagina, also known and the portio vaginalis. It is about 3 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. There are flat cells on the outer surface of the ectocervix. These fish scale-like cells can become cancerous, leading to squamous cell cervical cancer.
Squamous cells - flat cells that look like fish scales. The word comes from Latin "squama" meaning "the scale of a fish or serpent". Our outer-layer skin cells are squamous cells, as well as the passages of the respiratory and digestive tracts, and the linings of hollow internal organs.
2. Endocervix - glandular cells - adenocarcinoma of the cervix
The endocervix is the inside of the cervix. There are glandular cells lining the endocervix; these cells produce mucus. These glandular cells can become cancerous, leading to adenocarcinoma of the cervix.
What are the symptoms of cervical cancer?
Often during the early stages people may experience no symptoms at all. That is why women should have regular cervical smear tests.
The most common symptoms are:
Bleeding between periods
Bleeding after sexual intercourse
Bleeding in post-menopausal women
Discomfort during sexual intercourse
Smelly vaginal discharge
Vaginal discharge tinged with blood
Pelvic pain
Cervical cancer treatment options
Cervical cancer treatment options include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or combinations. Deciding on the kind of treatment depends on several factors, such as the stage of the cancer, as well as the patient's age and general state of health.
Treatment for early stage cervical cancer - cancer that is confined to the cervix - has a success rate of 85% to 90%. The further the cancer has spread out of the area it originated from, the lower the success rate tends to be.
New remarkable research-
How Cheaper Vinegar Test can Detects Cervical Cancer and save many lives?
A remarkably simple vinegar test in India has managed to lower the rate of cervical cancer deaths by one-third. Healthcare professionals have said that the outcome of the test has been "incredible", stating that it is capable of saving millions of lives.
Pap smears and HPV testing too expensive for developing countries. The introduction of pap tests and tests for HPV significantly reduced the incidence of cervical cancers in the U.S. A pap test involves examining a cervical swab and screening it for abnormal cells linked to potentially pre-cancerous and cancerous processes. Both tests are very effective in preventing and reducing cervical cancer deaths. In the U.S. all women aged 21 and older should receive a Pap test screening every three years.
In the U.S. doctor's frequently examine pap smears to detect cervical cancer. Over 99 per cent of cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV. HPV tests are also accurate at detecting cervical cancer. In fact, there was a debate among reproductive health experts over whether HPV tests should replace Pap smears as the primary method for screening for cervical cancer.
However, many developing nations can't afford screening tools such as Pap smears or human papillomavirus (HPV) tests, subsequently there is a lack of screening and care for the disease.As a result, cervical cancer is now one of the leading causes of cancer deaths in India.
Is there a cheaper alternative way?
To tackle the problem, researchers have been trying to find a cost-efficient method of detecting the cancer before it's too late. After years of work, a group of scientists have developed an alternative test to Pap smears.
The vinegar test is inexpensive and can be carried out with very little training and not much need for equipment. It involves swabbing the cervix with vinegar, which makes any pre-cancerous tumors turn white. The results can be seen within just minutes.
The test could save millions of lives
A total of 150,000 women living in the slums of Mumbai took part in the study.The results revealed that the vinegar test reduced cervical cancer deaths in the area by an overwhelming 31 percent. Experts predict that over 22,000 deaths in India and 72,600 deaths worldwide could be prevented as a result of this new method of screening. The main sponsor of the study, Dr. Ted Trimble of the National Cancer Institute in the U.S., said: "That's amazing. That's remarkable. It's a very exciting result." In addition, Electra Paskett, a gynecological cancer expert at Ohio State University, commented: "The thing in their program that was really wonderful is they assured follow-up their completion rate was phenomenal. 75,360 women who took the vinegar test were screened every two years since 1998 and 76,178 received vouchers for a free Pap test. The vinegar test proved to be a much cheaper and more accessible means of diagnosing cervical cancer in the country. Lead study author, Surendra Srinivas Shastri, a professor of preventive oncology at Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital, concluded, “We hope our results will have a profound effect in reducing the burden of cervical cancer in India and around the world. This is the first trial to identify a cervical cancer screening strategy that reduces mortality and is feasible to implement on a broad scale throughout India and in other developing countries."
(Source-journal PLOS Medicine )
