Cervical Cancer: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

Do you know your uterus ends at a part, called the cervix that connects your uterus to your vagina? Cells in the cervix get changed in cancerous cells that leads to cervical cancer. Studies proved that most cervical cancers are caused by various strains of human papillomavirus (HPV). This infection is transmitted through sexual contact. Upon entering the body, the HPV virus faces resistance from the body’s immune system which tries to prevent the virus from harming. However, viruses can survive for years in a body. This process plays a vital role in causing some cervical cells to become cancerous cells. 

The risk of developing cervical cancer can be reduced by having screening tests and receiving a vaccine that protects against HPV infection.

Treatment options for cervical cancer include medicines that help kill the cancer cells, surgery, targeted therapy, radiation therapy with powerful energy beams, and chemotherapy. 

What is Cervical Cancer?

Cervical cancer refers to the start growth of cancer cells on the surface of your cervix. The cells present on the cervical surface start to change in precancerous cells. Its causing agent is the human papillomavirus that spreads HPV infection in the victim’s body through sexual contact. 

Cervical cancer usually doesn’t show certain symptoms until it spreads to a large surface of the cervix. If found in the early stages, this cancer is highly treatable. 

According to a survey, more than 10,000 people in the country receive a cervical cancer diagnosis each year. Most patients are between 40 and 50 years old. 

Types of Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is medically categorized into two kinds.

1. Adenocarcinomas.
2. Squamous Cells Carcinomas.

About 90% of cervical cancer patients are diagnosed with the latter while the remaining 10% are affected by the former. However, studies showed that there are cases reported having a mix of both.

Stages of Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer has four main stages that are further divided into several sub-stages. Let’s look at the main stages of cervical cancer!

Stage 1: This is the initial stage when cancer is restricted to the neck area of your cervix. It is still not spread to the deeper parts of the cervix.

Stage 2: At this stage, the cancer cells have reached the uterus but still not spread to the pelvic wall or lower vagina. 

Stage 3: This stage indicates that cancer has spread to the lower part of your vagina and can soon reach your pelvic wall, lymph nodes, and ureters.

Stage 4: This stage confirms that the cancer has spread to your bladder, rectum, and other vital organs of your body, including lungs, liver, and bones. 

A keen screening test under the supervision of an expert healthcare provider can help to identify what stage of cervical cancer you have and what it means.

Symptoms and Causes

Symptoms of Cervical Cancer

Early stages of cervical cancer are hard to detect because it doesn’t involve clear symptoms. Studies suggest that the first sign of cervical cancer takes much time to develop. At the earlier or first stage, this cancer can be diagnosed by observing these symptoms:

• Pain during sexual activity.
• Bloody or watery vaginal discharge can have a foul odor and heavy texture.
• Vaginal bleeding after menopause, sex, or between menstrual periods.
• In the second or third stage, the cancer man has the symptoms, like:
• Abdominal or pelvic pain.
• Fatigue, loss of appetite or weight.
• Painful urination, often with blood in urine.
• A general feeling of illness.
• Pain or bleeding from your rectum when pooping.
• Diarrhea.
• Dull back and swelling on your legs.

You may need immediate medical assistance when experiencing unusual vaginal discharge or abnormal bleeding through the vagina. 

Causes of Cervical Cancer

HPV is the common cause of spreading cervical cancer. This is a sexually transmitted infection that spreads through sexual contact, which may be vaginal, oral, or anal. As your immune system struggles and fights against the HPV virus on its own, therefore, sometimes people cannot realize that they have developed cervical cancer. However, if your immunity gets defeated by the HPV virus and cannot fight off the infection, it causes your cervical cells to change to cancerous cells. 

Studies show that there are more than 100 types of HPV and many of them can cause cancer. You can prevent the spreading of these cancers only by early detection.  The HPV vaccine is another way to he;p prevent HPV infection that may protect against cervical cancer.

Who is at Higher Risk of Cervical Cancer?

Studies suggest that there are no known risk factors for cervical cancer. However, medical researchers have proposed a few. There is a list of the most probable risk factors that can be controlled:

A Weakened Immune System: A weak immune system makes it hard to fight against infections that cause cancer. Lack Of screening tests at regular intervals can increase the chances of developing cervical cancer. Usually, Pap tests can help detect cervical cancer.

Smoking: Cigarette smoke increases the risk of developing cervical cancer.

HPV Infection: HPV infection is the major cause of causing this cancer. Protecting yourself against HPV infections can lower the risk of developing cancerous cells in your cervix.

HIV Infection: Having an HIV infection is an indication of a higher risk of developing cervical cancer.

Sexual History: Having sexual partners more than once and having sexual intercourse before the age of 16 can make it easy to get infected. 

Along with all these controllable risk factors, some other risk factors are also present that cannot be controlled or changed, including:

Family History: The genetic component is one of the main causes of cervical cancer.

Diethylstilbestrol (DES): This is a medication that is given to people to prevent miscarriages but the studies show that the children whose mothers got DES are more likely to develop cervical cancer.

Complications of Cervical Cancer

No doubt this cancer is associated with life-threatening complications but early detection and treatment can be the key to avoiding such complications.

Some common complications related to cervical cancer are:

Bleeding: Bleeding through your bladder, rectum or vagina is a major complication that ensures the spread of cancer to these organs.

Pregnancy or Fertility Challenges: Some treatment options for cervical cancer cause the loss of ability to get pregnant. Removal of cancer cells from your cervix can increase the chances of miscarriages with future pregnancies.

Pain: After spreading to other organs, cancer causes severe pain.

Blood Clots: When you have cancer, your blood becomes sticky which increases the risk of blood clots. This causes slow blood flow and leads to clotting in blood vessels.

Side Effects of Cancer Treatments: Cancer treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy can lead to unpleasant side effects like sexual dysfunction, vomiting, nausea, and fatigue.

Bowel and Bladder Changes: This cancer also leads to difficulty peeing and other urinary problems like constipation.

Kidney Damage: Cervical cancer also causes kidney failure.

• Diagnosis and Tests
• Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer

The development of cervical cancer is a slow process and takes many years to show symptoms. When attacked by infection, your cervical cells go through several changes before turning into cancerous cells. At the start, normal cells of your cervix start to appear abnormal or irregular. These abnormal cells change into affected cells.

A Pap test may be helpful to detect most cases of cervical cancer through a regular cancer screening. Cancer screening helps to detect cell changes appearing in your cervical cells before becoming cancerous. This test involves observation of your cervix in a microscope. This keen observation leads to the identification of precancers or other abnormalities in your cervical cells.

In case abnormal results come from Pap tests, convince your healthcare provider for further testing. More testing includes the HPV test which is a specific test that helps check the cervical cells for the presence of HPV strains that are most likely to cause cancer.

Tests for Cervical Cancer Diagnosis

If your screening confirms abnormalities, you may be asked for more tests to confirm the presence of cancer cells in your cervix. The initial step is colposcopy. In this procedure, your cervix cells are magnified to identify irregular or abnormal cells. If some cells are found with unusual growth or look, your healthcare provider may remove a sample of cervical cells and send them to a lab for further testing.

The methods used for getting a sample of tissues from your cervix include:

Cone Biopsy: A slightly cone-shaped largest piece of tissue is removed from your cervix.

Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure: An electrical wire loop is used to remove the abnormal cervical tissues.

Endocervical Curettage: Your provider scraps the lining of your cervix with a spoon-shaped tool called a curette.

Punch Biopsy: This method involves a cutting tool with a round top to cut out the precancerous cells.

The results of these tests are used to confirm if cervical cancer has invaded. If cervical cancer is found in your cervix, further tests are performed to determine whether the disease has spread to other organs. These tests include:

• MRI.
• X-rays of your lungs, bladder, bowels, and rectum.
• Urine and blood tests.
• Kidney and liver function studies.
• CT scans.

The results of these tests help determine the stage of cancer. Cervical cancer ranges from the least severe to severe stage. Determining the stage of cancer may help your healthcare provider to determine the best treatment option.

Treatment and Prevention

Treatment of Cervical Cancer

Many factors affect the treatment procedures for cervical cancer. These factors include your desire to get pregnant in the future, your age, general health, and stage of cancer. 

Common treatment options for this cancer are:

• Radiation Therapy.
• Chemotherapy.
• Surgery.
• Targeted Therapy.
• Immunotherapy.

Other options include clinical trials which are certain controlled research studies to test new treatments for cancer. Your oncologist may advise you to participate in a clinical trial. Cancer treatments are also supplemented with acupuncture, diet, and herbs. Talking to your healthcare provider may help you know about alternative methods that claim to relieve cancer symptoms. They will guide if some may help because most of them could be harmful.

Radiation Therapy: High-energy beams are used to kill cancer cells in your cervix. These radiations are of two types,including:

Brachytherapy: Bombardment of radiation in or near the cancer cells.

External Beam Radiation Therapy: Falling high energy radiation at cancer cells from a machine placed outside your body.

Chemotherapy: In this treatment method, drugs are injected into your veins or through your mouth to kill cancer cells. It enters your cells and starts killing cancer cells everywhere in your body. Chemo drugs are of several types and are given in cycles. Your cancer stage and affected organs define the length of the cycle and schedule of chemotherapy. 

Surgery: Surgery is the most common method to treat cancer. Healthcare providers remove the cancerous tissues in the early stages. Common kinds of cancer surgery include:

Hysterectomy: Removal of your cervix and uterus known as hysterectomy.

Pelvic Exenteration: This is similar to hysterectomy but in this procedure your colon, rectum, bladder, or vagina may be removed if cancer has spread to those parts.

Laser Surgery: This involves a laser beam to burn off the cancer cells.

Trachelectomy: This procedure involves the removal of the upper part of your vagina or cervix. 

Cryosurgery: This is the freezing of cancer cells to destroy them completely.

Targeted Therapy: This treatment option destroys certain cancer cells without harming the healthy cells. It targets the protein that controls the growth and spreading of cancer cells. Scientists are working to design better-targeted treatments that destroy these proteins at the early stages of cancer.

Immunotherapy: In this method, medicines are used to stimulate your immune system to identify and destroy the cancer cells. Cancer cells sometimes pretend to be healthy to save themselves from immune system attacks. Immunotherapy helps your immune system to recognize hidden cancer cells.

Prevention of Cancer

Cervical cancer can be prevented by receiving regular gynecological exams and getting Pap tests. Some More things you can do, include:

• Quit using tobacco products and stop smoking.
• Get the HPV vaccine.
• Use protection or condoms when you have sex.
• Limit your sexual partners.

Conclusion

You may flow in a flood of emotions when receiving a cervical cancer diagnosis. You may go through a period of anxiety or depression while looking for treatment options for cancer. Now, your healthcare provider can help you by answering your questions regarding treatment and survival.

You may go for some tests to confirm the diagnosis and then adopt a treatment option recommended by your healthcare provider, including radiation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or surgery.