Due to big advances in early detection, such as the Pap test, it’s long been thought that cervical cancer had made a big retreat in the United States.
But the researchers note that prior estimates of cervical cancer death had included women who’d already had a hysterectomy. This can include the removal of the uterus and cervix.
One in five women in the United States has had a hysterectomy, according to the researchers.
Preventive screening such as the Pap test looks for signs of malignancy or pre-malignancy in the cervix, so it is only useful in reducing deaths from cervical cancer in women who have not undergone a hysterectomy, the researchers explained.
Their new calculation approach excludes women who’d had a hysterectomy.
When those women were factored out, Rositch’s team found that U.S. cervical cancer deaths are 77 percent higher among black women and 47 percent higher among white women than previously thought.