Every day 4-5 Polish women die of cervical cancer, and if they took advantage of the free smear test program every three years, most of these deaths could be avoided, experts said on Monday at a media meeting.
It summed up the XNUMXth European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, organized by the European Cervical Cancer Association (ECCA).
The youngest woman with cervical cancer who joined our association was 22 years old. The operation she underwent because of this was so extensive that she would never be able to give birth to a child. This is something I do not agree with, when I think that thanks to such a simple tool as cytology it could avoid it – said the founder and president of the Flower of Femininity Association, Ida Karpińska, who treated herself for this cancer, as emphasized by Philip, the representative of ECCA visiting Poland Davies, Polish women must understand that cervical cancer is not only associated with promiscuity and frequent change of partners. Research indicates that infection with HPV (human papillomavirus – PAP), the leading cause of cervical cancer, affects as much as 50 percent. women with only one partner, Davies said.
It is the most common sexually transmitted infection – most sexually active people will come into contact with HPV at some point in their lives.
In 80-90 percent In women, after 2-3 years, the infection will pass spontaneously, but in the rest it will turn into a chronic form, which does not give symptoms, but significantly increases the risk of developing neoplastic changes in the cervix – reminded gynecologist and obstetrician Jacek Tulimowski.
Experts emphasized that currently the optimal protection against this malignant tumor is provided by regular cytological tests and vaccinations against the two most carcinogenic types of HPV, especially in adolescents before sexual initiation. However, vaccinations do not exempt from the obligation of systematic examinations.
But as long as Poland cannot afford to finance these vaccinations from public funds, the best method of reducing the incidence and deaths of cervical cancer is population-based smear screening. Therefore, I would like to congratulate the Polish government once again for introducing a national research program that complies with the European guidelines, stressed Davies.
In 2010, the ECCA awarded this initiative with the Pearl of Wisdom, which was received by the Polish delegation from Davies.
Vaccines against the HPV virus are very controversial, but for me the most controversial and scandalous thing is that women in Poland do not take advantage of the possibility of cervical cancer prevention, the expert noted, reminding that only 25 percent of entitled Polish women respond to the invitation to a free cytology.
As part of the Population Program for Prevention and Early Cervical Cancer Detection, which is financed by the National Health Fund, every woman aged 25-59 can perform such a free examination every three years.
According to Davies, it is very important in the future to expand and refine this program so that as many women as possible can benefit from it, also from small towns. It goes, among others about increasing subsidies for this program, extending the hours of free cytology, and even introducing weekend tests so that women do not have to leave work to do it, and extensive social education – the expert mentioned. In time, this should bring results in the form of fewer cases and deaths from cervical cancer.
The patronage over the Polish edition of the week was taken by the wife of the President of the Republic of Poland, Anna Komorowska, the Mayor of the Capital City of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, the Polish Red Cross, the Polish Union of Oncology, the Polish Gynecological Society and the Polish Society of Oncological Gynecology. (PAP)