Black Women Have Increased Rates of Distant-Stage Cervical Cancer in 4.5%

However, White women in the South aged 40 to 44 years have the highest annual increase in distant-stage cervical cancer at a rate of 4.5 percent.

Compared with White women, Black women have increased rates of distant-stage cervical carcinoma, according to a study published online in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.

Alex Andrea Francoeur, M.D., from the University of California in Los Angeles, and colleagues obtained data from the U.S. Cancer Statistics program from 2001 to 2018 to examine trends in distant-stage cervical cancer. Rates of cervical cancer screening and vaccination were examined.

The researchers found that 29,715 women were diagnosed with distant-stage cervical carcinoma during the last 18 years. Disproportionately higher rates were seen for Black versus White women (1.55 versus 0.92/100,000).

An annual increase was observed in distant-stage cervical cancer at a rate of 1.3 percent per year. The largest increase was in cervical adenocarcinoma (average annual percentage change, 2.9 percent). The highest increase in the rate of distant cervical adenocarcinoma (4.5 percent annually) was seen for White women in the South aged 40 to 44 years.

White women had a nearly twofold higher rate of missed or lack of guideline screening than Black women (26.6 versus 13.8 percent). The lowest human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rate was 66.1 percent for White teenagers (13 to 17 years) compared with 75.3 percent for others.

“In spite of cervical adenocarcinoma screening and HPV vaccination uptake in the USA, there still exist significant racial and ethnic disparities in distant stage cervical cancer,” the authors write. “These findings highlight the importance of proper cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination as well as additional research to explore why rates of adenocarcinoma are increasing.”

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