Progress You Can See!

More than 3,700 American women and 273,000 women around the world die each year from cervical cancer,^1,2 a disease that is virtually preventable today because of advances in diagnostic technology.

Cervical cancer is caused by one of a handful of “high-risk” strains of HPV, which can cause abnormal cells to form on the cervix. If caught early, it can be easily treated. If not, invasive cervical cancer can develop — a potentially fatal disease, and a disease that deprives the thousands of others who survive of the ability to have children.

**Cervical Cancer Facts**
U.S. residents with some form of HPV	20 million³
Annual number of women who develop cervical cancer	9,700²
Annual deaths from cervical cancer in U.S.	3,700¹
Direct cost of cervical cancer treatment	$1.7 billion⁴
Indirect costs	Unknown

Since the 1940s, when the American Cancer Society began to recommend Pap test screening, hundreds of thousands of women’s lives have been spared, marking a dramatic improvement from the 1930s when cervical cancer was the most common cause of cancer-related death in U.S. women.

Despite the success of the Pap test, cervical cancer continues to develop in 9,700 American women every year.⁵ But with new, advanced technology that detects the genetic code of high-risk types of HPV, women who have one or more of the 13 most clinically relevant and dangerous types of HPV can now be identified with almost 100-percent accuracy. This allows for intervention before the abnormal cells caused by the virus become cancerous. With the Pap and HPV tests available, cervical cancer is now virtually a preventable disease.

A recent study found that the HPV diagnostic test can reduce health care spending. Because cervical cancer is a slow-developing disease, lower-risk (HPV-negative) patients can now be clearly identified with screenings less frequently than once a year, the common recommendation with the Pap test. When Pap screening is combined with an HPV test for women age 30 and over, the lifetime costs are almost halved (to $1,213) and life expectancy increases.⁶

American Cancer Society. “What are the key statistics about cervical cancer?” http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/ CRI_2_4_1X_What_are_the_key_statistics_for_cervical_cancer_8.asp (4 May 2006).

National Cervical Cancer Coalition. “Statistics about Cervical Cancer.” http://www.nccc-online.org (24 April 2006).

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Genital HPV Infection-CDC Fact Sheet.” http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm#common (4 May 2006).

Brown M, Riley G, Schussler N, et al. “Estimating health care costs related to cancer treatment from SEER-Medicare data.” Medical Care 40(8 Suppl) (2002):104-17. Phase-specific prevalence and cost estimates are for SEER-Medicare cases diagnosed between 1996-1999, with costs expressed in 2001 dollars using CMS cost adjusters. Estimates are updated to 2004 using the medical care services component of the Consumer Price Index: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics: CPI Detailed Report and Producer Price Indexes. Washington. U.S. Government Printing Office. Monthly reports for January 1999-March 2004.

American Cancer Society. “Key Statistics About Cervical Cancer.” http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/ CRI_2_4_1X_What_are_the_key_statistics_for_cervical_cancer_8.asp?rnav=cri (24 April 2006).

Goldie S, Kim K, Wright T. “Cost effectiveness of human papillomavrius DNA testing for cervical cancer screening in women aged 30 years or more.” Obstetrics & Gynecology 103 (2004):619-631.