Early detection of symptoms can prevent cervical cancer

Awareness along with application of a simple method to detect the visual symptoms can effectively prevent the disease, experts said at a dissemination workshop yesterday.

Co-sponsored by Proshika and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, the one-year study was conducted on about 3,000 married women from two unions of Narayanganj district and one ward of Dhaka district.

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Cervical cancer, caused by Papiloma virus, is the most common form of cancer in women and it is the highest incidence among all forms of cancer in women.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has forecast that around 7,000 women will die prematurely in Bangladesh by 2005 due to such preventable diseases, with cervical cancer being on the top of the list.

Many developing countries, the study said, have successfully reduced cervical cancer incidence.

The developed nations have low incidence of cervical cancer as women in those countries have access to a screening test that allows precarious lesions to be detected and treated early.

Visual inspection aided by acetic acid (VIA), a cost-effective and easy procedure, proves one of the promising screening methods for detecting cervical cancer in the developing countries.

The VIA instant finding shows white lesions, often white plaques, ulcer or even cauliflower shape growth and fungal mass in the cervix. These symptoms can easily trigger an effective treatment to prevent the cancer, researchers said.

VIA, already tried successfully in three countries, involves swabbing of the cervix with four to five percent acetic acid known as vinegar solution prior to visual examination.

"The method is very easy and does not require any special expertise for the physical examination. Five to ten days of training is sufficient to enable any level of health provider to identify any pre-condition for cervical cancer," said Dr Ataur Rahman, the principal investigator of the study.

Presenting his population-based findings at the Birdem Hospital auditorium yesterday, Dr Ataur said that more advanced method -- pap smear with colposcopy done at laboratory -- is not always available in all health centres.

But if public healthcare providers are trained to conduct VIA test, women at grassroots level can easily learn about their status of illness.

About 2.2 percent of 3290 women who voluntarily took part in the VIA study showed squamous intraepithelial lesions or an indication of development of (primary stage) cervical cancer, the study said.

Quazi Faruque Ahmed, president of Proshika, Dr Halida Hanum Akhter, managing director of Health Promotion, and senior gynaecologists of Birdem and other leading hospitals were also present at the workshop.