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. 2013 Jul 9;109(1):35-41.
doi: 10.1038/bjc.2013.322. Epub 2013 Jul 2.

Characteristics and screening history of women diagnosed with cervical cancer aged 20-29 years

A Castanon  1 , V M W Leung, R Landy, A W W Lim, P Sasieni
Affiliations

Characteristics and screening history of women diagnosed with cervical cancer aged 20-29 years

A Castanon et al. Br J Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: There was concern that failure to screen women aged 20-24 years would increase the number of cancers or advanced cancers in women aged 20-29 years. We describe the characteristics of women diagnosed with cervical cancer in England aged 20-29 years and examine the association between the period of diagnosis, screening history and FIGO stage.

Methods: We used data on 1800 women diagnosed with cervical cancer between April 2007 and March 2012 at age 20-29 from the National Audit of Invasive Cervical Cancers.

Results: The majority of cancers (995, or 62% of those with known stage) were stage 1A. Cancer at age 20-24 years was rare (12% of those aged 20-29 years), when compared with age 25 (24%) and age 26-29 years (63%); however, cancers in women aged 20-24 years tended to be more advanced and were more often of a rare histological type. For 59% of women under age 30, the cervical cancer was screen detected, most of them (61%) as a result of their first screening test. A three-fold increase in the number of cancers diagnosed at age 25 years was seen since the start of the study period.

Conclusion: Cervical cancer at age 20-24 years is rare. Most cancers in women under age 30 years are screen detected as microinvasive cancer.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Rate and number of cancers in the study by age at diagnosis. (A) For those diagnosed between April 2007 and November 2008, (B) for those diagnosed between December 2008 and July 2010, (C) for those diagnosed between August 2010 and March 2012. The darker shading indicates cancers diagnosed at age 25.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

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