Is cervical cancer an incurable disease? How effective is the cervical cancer vaccine?

Cervical cancer is not an incurable disease. The key is early detection. Patients with early cervical cancer have no symptoms. When it continues to develop, the following clinical manifestations may appear.

Cervical cancer bleeding abnormalities

1. The first symptom is usually "contact bleeding", such as bleeding during sexual intercourse, bleeding during gynecological examinations, or irregular bleeding after menopause.

2. Vaginal leucorrhea increases further. Due to infection and necrosis of cancerous tissue, the secretion has a strong odor.

3. When the tumor develops further and the cancerous tissue invades the pelvic wall and nerves, the patient will feel severe back pain, leg pain and lower abdominal pain. If the mass compresses the lymph and blood vessels, the lower limbs will also be severely swollen; if the mass invades the rectum and bladder, defecation will be difficult, and there may also be blood in the urine and blood.

4. Irregular vaginal bleeding is a common early symptom of cervical cancer. Elderly women have been in menopause for many years, and suddenly they have their period for no reason. The amount of bleeding is often not much, and there is no abdominal pain, back pain and other symptoms, which are easy to be ignored. In fact, this irregular vaginal bleeding is often a manifestation of cervical cancer.

5. Early symptoms of cervical cancer can also include increased vaginal discharge. Clinically, many cervical cancer patients have varying degrees of increased vaginal discharge. Most of them have increased vaginal discharge, which is then accompanied by changes in odor and color. The increase in vaginal discharge is due to stimulation from cervical cancer tumors. It has a normal odor at first, but later due to necrosis of cancer tissue, accompanied by infection, pus, rice soup or bloody vaginal discharge will flow out of the vagina.

6. Contact bleeding is the most prominent early symptom of cervical cancer. Many cervical cancer patients have vaginal bleeding, which is mainly manifested by sexual intercourse or gynecological examination, or difficult defecation, and vaginal discharge mixed with fresh. If women experience bleeding after sexual intercourse, they do not always think that it is caused by improper force during sexual intercourse.

Generally speaking, different types of cervical cancer are classified as follows:

1. Ulcer type: This classification of cervical cancer is rarer than the cauliflower type. The cancerous tissue first destroys the surface of the cervix, gradually soaks, destroys more, and forms ulcers. This type mainly occurs in the cervical lips and cervical canal. Necrotic tissue is common, easy to be combined with infection, and still sensitive to radiation.

2. Nodular type: The rarest is general hypertrophy of the cervix. This classification of cervical cancer mainly penetrates deep into the cervix. It is usually as hard as hard rubber or wood and is moderately sensitive to radiation.

3. Cauliflower or nipple type: It is the most common type of cervical cancer. It is an exophytic cancer, cauliflower, prone to occur on the cervical lips, with little spread, often accompanied by necrosis, infection, bleeding, and sensitive to radiation.

4. Invasive type: This type of cervical cancer is mainly classified as invasive growth with little bleeding, but it is highly invasive and has poor sensitivity to radiation.

Cervical cancer vaccine works best in young women

Experts point out that the cervical cancer vaccine currently on the market is most suitable for women aged HPV16 to 26 (human papillomavirus), which means that it is recommended that young women who have not had sexual intercourse be vaccinated, as the effect is better.

Studies have shown that after women who have not been infected with HPV are vaccinated, the HPV infection rate can be reduced by 98%, and the incidence of cervical glandular carcinoma in situ can be reduced by 100%. For those who have been infected. The yield rate of HPV vaccination for women aged 24 to 45 is only 66%, which is significantly lower than that of women aged 16 to 26. These data show that the best benefit is for women who have not been infected with HPV to receive the virus vaccine, and the younger the age, the greater the benefit.

HPV vaccines have not yet been administered in mainland hospitals, but have been administered in Hong Kong. Given the limited time the vaccine has been on the market, the research results only confirm that the quadrivalent vaccine is effective for 7 years and the bivalent vaccine is still effective for 7 to 8.5 years. The long-term preventive effect is unclear, so readers are advised to choose carefully.

Cervical cancer vaccine cannot 100% prevent cancer

Cervical cancer can be prevented by vaccination. Currently, cervical cancer vaccines are available overseas and will soon be introduced in China. But this does not mean that cervical cancer vaccines can completely prevent it. HPV vaccine research has made progress in the past 10 years, and many vaccines have completed Phase I/II clinical trials, but there is still a distance from clinical application, such as clinical side effects and environmental safety. HPV viruses are strictly specific, and it is impossible to establish an animal model to evaluate the immune effect of the vaccine and the safety of the vaccine itself.

Cervical cancer screening is very important

Cervical cancer screening is very important. Director Lin Li suggested that women over 21 years old should start cervical cancer screening, and women aged 21 to 29 years old can undergo cytological screening every two years. Women over 30 years old need cytological screening and HPV testing at the same time. If two consecutive results are normal, the screening interval can be appropriately extended to 3 years.