Name: Raveena Baskar
Location: Kerala
Question:What are the risk factors for developing cervical cancer?
Answer:Cervical cancer is predominantly caused because of an infection by a virus called the human papilloma virus. The human papilloma virus is of various strains and types, but there are certain which are called high-risk viruses, particularly type 16 and 18 that predominantly cause 70 to 80% of cervical cancers.
Name: Mineeja Hari
Location: Bangalore
Question:How can I prevent cervical cancer? Are there any lifestyle changes I should make?
Answer:The virus is sexually transmitted. So, becoming sexually active at a younger age predisposes ladies or women to a higher risk of cervical cancer. Those that have multiple sexual partners and those that have unprotected sex with these sexual partners are at a higher risk of contracting the virus. You may even have one partner, but if that partner is a high-risk individual carrying the virus because of multiple partners, that also is a predisposing factor to cervical cancer.
So, you can avoid cervical cancer by practicing safe sex, one partner, and not having unprotected sex. The other method by which you can avoid cervical cancer is by getting a vaccine, the human papillomavirus vaccine, usually recommended in three doses and given to girls before they get sexually active or before they contract the virus just as we take immunization vaccines when we are kids before we get the viral infection.
Name: Blessy Mathew
Location: Kochi
Question:What are the symptoms of cervical cancer?
Answer:When the HPV infection starts, the person has absolutely no symptoms. Cervical cancer develops over a couple of years. So, the cells go from mild dysplasia, that is, this means bad cells, to moderate dysplasia, to severe dysplasia, to carcinoma in situ.
Answer:And then it becomes an invasive cancer. This takes many years. So, in the dysplasia stage, the patient may have no symptoms. However, the moment you have an invasive cancer, vaginal bleeding, particularly after intercourse, intermenstrual bleeding or bleeding in a lady postmenopausal, any abnormal vaginal bleeding is one of these symptoms.
Name: Anupama Kadam
Location: Pune
Question:How is cervical cancer diagnosed? What tests are involved?
Answer:Cervical cancer is diagnosed with a biopsy, a bit of tissue is taken and sent which confirms the cancer. However, as I mentioned earlier, Cervical cancer goes through various stages of dysplasia, mild, moderate, severe and Carcinoma in-situ. If the changes are picked up at an early stage, it is 100% curable without having major side effects. The best test to pick it up before the biopsy is positive, before a full-blown cancer is as the pap smear. The pap smear basically is a few cells are scraped out from the cervix, put onto a slide and the pathologist looks for abnormal cells. Now there is a more advanced test looking for HPV infection in the cells.
Name: Navya Rajan
Location: Mumbai
Question:What are the different stages of cervical cancer?
Question:The new developments in the treatment of blood cancer are one- genetic. I wouldn't say genetic. I would say mutational understanding of certain genetic stroke mutational changes in the blood cancer so that we can target these specifically with certain drugs that act purely on these targets. The second is exciting new developments in the treatment which includes new drugs which are targeted drugs as well as immunotherapy, and the 3rd is recent advances in bone marrow transplant and Kar T cell therapy.
Name: Praveen Kumar
Location: Mumbai
Question:How does prostate cancer impact quality of life?
Answer:Like most cancers, cervical cancers are also divided into four stages. Now each of these four stages are subdivided into A, A1, A2, B1, B2, but very simply put, stage one is when the growth is confined to the cervix. Stage two is when the growth involves the upper part of the vagina but does not spread into the rest of the pelvis. Stage three is when it spreads into the pelvis, or it has back pressure effects blocking the ureter and you have kidney problems or the lower third of the vagina. Stage four is when it involves surrounding structures in the pelvis like the bladder and the rectum or it has spread to other parts of the body such as the liver, bone, lung, etc.
Name: Neethu Felix
Location: Australia
Question:What treatment options are available for cervical cancer?
Answer:Cervical cancer can be treated by surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy. These are used in various combinations or alone, depending on the stage at which the patient presents. If the lesion is very, very small and very superficial, local surgery can be performed, sometimes even preserving fertility of the lady if she desires to have children. Colonization, trachelectomy are examples of these localized procedures.
Answer:Surgery when done is called a Wertheim’s hysterectomy, where the entire uterus is removed. We sample the lymph glands along with it and if it's an early-stage disease, it is upwards of 90% curable. For early-stage disease, you could also use radiotherapy, but radiotherapy has long term side effects. So, when radiotherapy is used, it is used either externally or internally as well in the form of brachytherapy. Brachytherapy is a local form of radiotherapy and is given by internal devices that radiate the cervix. When cancer is more major, then a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is used. We also now use targeted and immunotherapy as forms of radiotherapy. When the cancer is advanced and is communicating with the rectum or the bladder, an exenteration is done where the cervix, the uterus and the organ in which it is fistulized are removed. But these are usually done for very advanced cancer.
Name: Chinthu R
Location: Idukki
Question:Are there any alternative or complementary therapies that can be used alongside conventional treatments?
Answer:Alternative or complementary therapy basically are using vitamins, food supplements, herbs and various other kinds of supportive treatment in the treatment of cervical cancer. While these can be used to help alleviate the side effects of your treatment, they do not really act or potentiate the action but will help support the patient in their treatment through well-established treatments namely surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapy.
Name: Ramya Suyesh
Location: Mumbai
Question:Will I need surgery as part of my treatment? What are the most common surgical procedures for cervical cancer?
Answer:Surgical treatment is recommended for cervical cancer at both ends of the spectrum, very early and very advanced. If it is very early or it has not developed into a full -blown cancer, colonization or just removing a cone of tissue on the cervix is done. Trachelectomy is a procedure where a part of the cervix and the upper part of the vagina is removed, again for early cancers, more so in women who want to preserve fertility. In localized early cancers, a radical hysterectomy or a Wertheim's hysterectomy is done, where the entire uterus, the tubes, the ovaries, the vagina, the upper parts of the vagina and the lymph glands are all removed, which is a curable cancer.
Answer:In very advanced cancers, as mentioned before, when cervical cancer causes a fistulization, it eats into the bladder or the rectum. We do an exenteration where the uterus is removed as in a radical hysterectomy, along with the bladder or rectum or sometimes both. If the bladder is removed with uterus, it is called anterior exenteration. If the rectum is removed with the uterus, it is called posterior exenteration. And if all three are removed, that is, uterus, bladder and rectum, it is called a total radical exenteration.
Name: Raj R
Location: Chennai
Question:HPV Vaccine is said to be a preventive measure for cervical cancer. Is it all right if a woman takes it after the age limit of 45?
Answer:HPV vaccination is a preventive measure for cervical cancer. Like any vaccination, the woman or the girl must take it before they contract HPV infection. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease. It's a virus that is sexually transmitted. So, a lady after the age of 45 taking the vaccine really has no benefit. It's normally given abroad to pre-pubertal girls before they become sexually active. But basically, in our country it could be given slightly later as well, because of the different socio-cultural factors prevalent in our country.
Name: Tijo Jacob
Location: Kochi
Question:I have read that processed food and sugar can add to the risk of cervical cancer. Is it true and what are the dietary restrictions?
Answer:Processed foods and sugar are not healthy foods. It is not good for most non-communicable diseases, be it cancer in general, be it diabetes, be it your heart disease. Truly, it is not directly linked to cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is HPV related, human papillomavirus, which is sexually transmitted. But it is a good habit to stay off or take in very minimal quantities, process foods and sugar in absolute moderation.
Name: Ruksana Ansari
Location: Hyderabad
Question:What are the major causes of cervical cancer?
Answer:Causes of cervical cancer have been elucidated before and are mainly because of infection sexually transmitted by the human papilloma virus.
Name: Sridevi Ravi
Location: Bangalore
Question:Is cervical cancer common in 20s??
Answer:Cervical cancer is not common in girls who are just in their 20s. As mentioned, it goes through the stage of mild dysplasia, moderate dysplasia, severe dysplasia. It's known as CIN 1 -2 -3 in medical terminology. Then into insight to whether cancerous changes are only confined to the walls within the walls of the cell and then invasive where it eats into surrounding tissues. This takes many years to pick up and that forms the basis of a pap smear, picking it up before a full -blown cancer has developed. For all this to take is, takes multiple years, so it's unlikely that ladies in their early 20s would get this cancer.
Name: Praseetha
Location: Dubai
Question:Is Stage 4 cervical cancer curable?
Answer:Stage 4 cervical cancer is basically of two types. One is Stage 4A, when the cancer eats into the rectum and the bladder, and Stage 4B, when it's spread to the rest of the other organs of the body, outside the pelvis, such as liver, etc. Now, Stage 4B can be controlled for some time, but is largely incurable. The chances of cure, even with Stage 4A, is much lower than if you had smaller volumes disease. So basically, Stage 4 cancer is incurable, but in Stage 4A, which is confined to just the organs in the pelvis, surgery may help to cure but a small percentage of patients.
