Learn how to protect yourself against cervical cancer
January is Cervical Health Awareness Month
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - In the last 30 years, cervical cancer death rates in the US have fallen by more than 50 percent. That’s due to early detection and prevention.
One of the most common causes of cervical cancer is HPV or human papilloma virus. It’s a highly effective vaccine that is shown to protect against 90 percent of the HPV viruses that cause cervical cancer.
Dr. Peter Morris is a gynecological oncologist surgeon and treats cervical cancer and other endometrial cancers. He has been practicing for 35 years.
“It’s one of the few cancers, if not the only cancer, we have a vaccine that can prevent almost all cases of cervical cancer,” Dr. Morris said. “So between screening and prevention, it may be a cancer that we think about eliminating sometime here in the future,”
The vaccine is given to kids when they are around 11 or 12 years old before they have the chance to be exposed to the virus. Overall, the cancer is not heredity.
Copyright 2023 KOLN. All rights reserved.