Jan. 10 (UPI) — More women 65 and older are battling late-stage cervical cancer and dying from the disease, according to a new study released by the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.
From 2009 to 2018, nearly one in five new cervical cancers diagnosed were in women 65 and older.
“Our findings highlight the need to better understand how current screening guidelines might be failing women 65 and over,” the study’s lead author, UC Davis senior statistician Julianne Cooley, said. “We need to focus on determining the past screening history of older women as well as lapses in follow-up care. We must utilize non-invasive testing approaches for women nearing age 65 or those who need to catch up on their cervical cancer screenings.”
The study found that 71% of women aged 65 and older presented with late-stage disease compared to 45% of younger women.
Late-stage five-year relative survival was lower for women 65 and older at 23.2%-36.8%, compared to younger age groups at 41.5%-51.5%. Among women older than 65, those who had comorbidities were more likely to be diagnosed with the late-stage disease and women older than 80 had the lowest survival rate of all groups.
“Our study found worsening five-year relative survival from cervical cancer with each increasing age category for both early and late-stage diagnoses,” said co-author Theresa Keegan.
The introduction of the Papanicolaou, or Pap, smear test in the 1940s caused cervical cancer incidence and mortality to fall significantly but incidence rates plateaued in 2012 and rates of invasive cervical cancer have been on the rise since.
Other studies showed that 23.2% of U.S. women aged 18 and older are not up to date on recommended cervical cancer screenings, with poor, uninsured or otherwise disadvantaged women least likely to report being up to date on their screenings.
The authors of the UC Davis study noted that they did not find an increase in risk among Hispanic and Black women, as some other studies have found.
“Interestingly, prior studies of younger women have found increased late-stage cervical cancer diagnoses among young Hispanic/Latina and Black women,” Cooley said. “Our study did not observe these associations and instead found that older Hispanic/Latina women were less likely than non-Hispanic white women to be diagnosed late-stage.”
