This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Trisha Amboree about research showing higher rates of cervical cancer in women living in rural counties in the U.S. Dr. Amboree is an Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences and a researcher at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. According to new research, cervical cancer diagnoses among U.S. women living in rural counties have been increasing since 2012, after years of decreases. Doctor Trisha Amboree is here to provide the details. Doctor Amboree is an Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences, and she's a researcher at Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC. Doctor Amboree, tell us more about what's been going on in the U.S. and also South Carolina regarding cervical cancer rates, particularly in rural counties compared to urban counties.
Dr. Amboree: So, unfortunately, as you mentioned, we are seeing increasing rates of new cervical cancer diagnoses in women living in rural U.S. counties. And we're also seeing higher rates of cervical cancer incidence and mortality in these rural counties when compared to their urban counterparts. The rural urban differences are also really consistent in the South Carolina data as well.
Conner: You were the lead researcher at MUSC working on this new study regarding cervical cancer. Tell us the details about this research.
Dr. Amboree: This work was done in partnership with our friends at MD Anderson, where I completed my postdoctoral fellowship training. And based on some of our previous work, we had an idea that there were rural-urban differences in cervical cancer trends. And so, this study used National Cancer Registry data to directly assess those trends. So, the years for this study were between the years of 2001 to 2019, and we included about 222,000 cervical cancer cases that were identified during that time period.
Conner: Tell us more details about the finding that cervical cancer rates and mortality were higher in rural counties in the U.S. versus urban counties.
Dr. Amboree: Yeah, you're absolutely right. Nationally, we found cervical cancer incidence increasing at about 1% per year overall. And we also found about 25% higher cervical cancer incidence and 42% higher cervical cancer mortality in rural counties when compared to urban counties. And then when we looked at that data specifically for South Carolina, which is not directly assessed in the paper, but is helpful for the context of our conversation, we find that in recent years, there's about a 25% higher incidence and about a 63% higher mortality in rural South Carolina counties when compared to urban South Carolina counties.
Conner: Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV. Tell us about prevention of cervical cancer.
Dr. Amboree: It's estimated that about nine out of ten cervical cancers are caused by infection with HPV and cervical cancer is preventable through vaccination against HPV and timely screening for the early detection and treatment of precancers. It's important to be vaccinated whenever you're age eligible for that, and it's also important to be screened regularly for cervical cancer.
Conner: What are the guidelines for screening?
Dr. Amboree: People become eligible for cervical cancer screening around age 21, and so from 21 to 65, that is what is considered the screen eligible age. Within that, depending on which test you get for screening, you can be screened every three years or every five years. So please talk to your health care provider about which screening option is best for you.
Conner: Doctor Amboree, thanks for information about this cervical cancer research.
Dr. Amboree: Thank you, Bobbi for having me.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
