As of today, the number of lives taken due to cervical cancer is decreased with more women appreciating the benefits of early detection through regular and annual pap smears. Because more women are now more careful of their body and their health, cervical cancer is now deduced from being a killer disease to an illness that is easily prevented and detected.

Cancer of the cervix has 4 stages - stages 1 to 4. In this case, stage 1 is the earliest (and less dangerous) and stage 4 is the most dangerous.

Stage 1 has two phases: Stage 1A and Stage 1B. At the 1st phase, the Cervical Cancer Survival Rate is pretty agreeable at 96-99%. Since this is the first phase of your cancer experience, the cancer is still localized and may be easily taken by surgery. Stage 1B has around 80-90% rate of survival and may be treated with a combination of surgery, chemo and radiation therapy.

At stage 2, the cancer has already proliferated to the surrounding tissues outside the uterus. At a five-year time period, the Cervical Cancer Survival Rate of patients diagnosed during this stage is significantly lower at 65-69%. Treatment is the same with the previous stage but dosage and frequency of the medications and therapy sessions may be higher.

In most cancer cases, it is dangerous to leave the cancer untreated until it reaches the 3rd stage. It is because prognosis at this stage is very poor and the Cervical Cancer Survival Rate is quite low at 40-43% even with adequate chemo and radiation therapy.

At the fourth stage of the disease, the cancer may have already affected the distant organs such as the pelvis and even the intestines. Even with treatment, the percentage of survival is still at 15-20%.

Cancer of the cervix is equally prevalent among women with kids and without and also to women with active sex life or those without. Like most cancers, the direct and exact cause of cancer of the cervix is unknown but is loosely related to a woman's lifestyle, race and even her socio-economic status.

The preventative and detective measures primarily suggested by most medical practitioners are biannual or annual pap smear tests as soon as a woman begins engaging in active sex or as early as eighteen years of age.

By Mert Ozge