Cervical cancer rates in US dropping, but women still missing important checkups due to pandemic

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Cervical cancer was once a leading cause of cancer death, but fortunately, those rates are dropping due to vaccines and improved screenings.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors said many women have been skipping their checkups.

Cervical cancer is mostly due to the human papilloma virus, also known as HPV, and there are three types of screenings. Most women are familiar with the PAP smear, but now, doctors can test for different strains of HPV.

"If a patient has been screened with a Pap smear, then the interval is generally every three years, and with primary HPV screening, it's every five years," said Dr. Kimberly Callegari with Kaiser Permanente.

She said said of patients who are diagnosed with cervical cancer, approximately 50% have never been screened, and 10% have not been screened within the five years before diagnosis.

In the U.S., Latino women are the number one group diagnosed with cervical cancer, and mortality is highest among Black women.

"Poverty, recent immigration language barriers, all come into play," said Callegari. "There's also so sadly implicit bias within the healthcare system."

Just before her friend's wedding, Danyelle Proano found out she needed a biopsy following an abnormal PAP test. Days before her sister's wedding, doctors delivered the diagnosis.

"At the time, I was at an age where all of my friends and family were starting their families," she said. "This was not something that was on my radar that could possibly turn into cervical cancer that would result in me having to have a hysterectomy at age 34."

It was a drastic surgery, but it saved Proano life along with a regular screening.

In the past 10 years, cervical cancer rates significantly dropped among those between the ages of 20 and 24 and doctors credit HPV vaccines.

For Proano, prevention is her message. Now, five years after her hysterectomy, she hopes others will take time to get regular screenings.

"It's not worth it to put it off thinking we're all busy but to find the time," she said.