Cervical Cancer Facts and Statistics. Cervical cancer is a significant cause of global mortality among women aged 15 years and above. From 1980 to 2010, global cervical cancer incidence increased from an estimated 378,000 cases per year to 454,000 cases per year, a 0.6% annual rate of increase.15 Cervical cancer death rates, which have declined in recent years, still indicate that cervical cancer is a prominent threat to women of reproductive age; in 2010, cervical cancer killed 200,000 women worldwide.1 In the United States, the American Cancer Society estimates that in 2012, 12,170 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed, and 4,220 women will die from cervical cancer.16 The association between cervical cancer incidence and screening is xxxxx; the benefits of regular cervical cancer screening include early stage of invasive disease at diagnosis and reduced incidence through detection and treatment of cervical pre- cancer (pre-cancerous changes in cervical cells).17 Indeed, when cervical cancers are detected at an early stage, five-year survival rates are above 90%.2 Thus, both regular cervical cancer screening and stage at diagnosis are contributing factors to improved cervical cancer outcomes and survival. Cervical cancer is staged clinically, based on a doctor’s physical examination in conjunction with additional tests, rather than through an examination of surgical findings. The gold standard for staging cervical cancer is the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging system. The FIGO staging system classifies cervical cancer stages on a scale using Roman numerals from I to IV, with each stage being further subdivided into two sub-stages, sub-stage A or B (i.e. Stage IA/IB, Stage IIA/IIB, etc.). The primary FIGO stages correspond with the spread of cervical cancer from the cervix to neighboring areas of the female reproductive system or other areas of the body; the sub- stages, meanwhile, document the amount of cancer found at each stage, and/or the extent of the cancer’s spread and where it is found. Stage I denotes cancerous cells confined to the cervix only, while the sub-stages measure the amount of cancer found in the cervix, from 3 to 5 millimeters deep (Stage IA) to 4 centimeters or smaller (Stage IB). Stage II refers to cancerous cells that have spread beyond the cervix, but not to the pelvic wall (tissues lining the area of the body between the hips) or the lower third of the vagina. Stage II’s sub-stages measure the amount of cancer that...
