Cervical
Cancer

Cervical cancer is the most common cancers in women. It is often difficult to prevent cancer but cervical cancer is one of those that we can prevent. We can give young girls aged between 9 and 12 years a vaccine and we can do a pap smear to identify and treat abnormal changes that happen before cancer is formed. 

If a woman develops cancer they can be treated but prevention is definitely better than cure as we have cost effective solutions for prevention. South Africa has very good policies that ensure that these tools to prevent and treat cervical cancer are available in schools and health facilities.

 

In spite of that there are still some young girls and women who don’t access these tools either because they don’t have enough or correct information and refuse the services; or don’t seek the services; or the service is not accessible to them, due to health system and other social determinants.

Unfortunately black women in South Africa are almost six times more likely to die of cervical cancer than white women because of poor screening and late detection. So having the right policy is very important but it’s just as important to ensure implementation of the policy reaches all women regardless of who they are or where they live or how much money they have.

– Tracey Naledi, Deputy Dean: Health Services, UCT Faculty of Health Sciences

THE FULL TOOLKIT TEXT


CERVICAL CANCER POLICY

prevention

Know your rights: from age 9 to 12, all primary school girls are entitled to two doses of vaccination against the human papillomavirus (hpv), type 16 and 18 of which are the cause of most cases of cervical cancer worldwide. Girls should be vaccinated before they first become sexually active for the best outcome.

DETECTING CERVICAL PRE-CANCER

Know your rights: early diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer can save your life. If a cervical abnormality is detected, you must be offered appropriate pre-cancer treatment.

TIMELY TREATMENT AND PALLIATIVE CARE FOR INVASIVE CERVICAL CANCER

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
ALL WOMEN WITH BIOPSY-DIAGNOSED CERVICAL CANCER MUST UNDERGO STAGING WITHIN A MAXIMUM SIX WEEKS SO THE BEST POSSIBLE TREATMENT PLAN CAN BE FORMULATED.

Depending on the type and stage of your cancer, you may need more than one type of treatment. For the earliest stages of cervical cancer, either surgery or radiation combined with chemo may be used. For later stages, radiation combined with chemo is usually the main treatment. – American Cancer Society ¹