Cervical Cancer Screening

The AMA Minority Affairs Consortium is providing the following information and resources on cervical cancer for you and your patients.

Cervical cander remains a major public health concern. Consider the following facts:

• The incidence rate and the mortality rate of cervical cancer for African American women ages 65 and older are more than two times greater than those for white women of the same age group (34.4 and 23.3 per 100,000 women, respectively, compared to 14.7 and 8.0 for white women).¹
  
  
• Hispanic women ages 65 and older also have a higher incidence rate and mortality rate of cervical cancer than do white women (27.6 and 11.6 per 100,000 women, respectively).²
  
  
• Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women; in many developing countries, it is the number one killer of women.¹
  
  
• For women of all ages in the United States, the incidence rate of cervical cancer is 8.3 per 100,000 women and the mortality rate is 2.9 per 100,000 women.²
  
  
• The highest incidence rate occurs among Vietnamese women (43 per 100,000 women), many of whom are recent immigrants to the U.S. and have not benefited from cervical cancer screening. Incidence rates of 15 per 100,000 women or higher also occur among Alaska Native, Korean, and Hispanic women.³

¹NIH Consensus Panel. NIH Consensus Conference: Cervical Cancer, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1996.
²National Cancer Institute Cancer Statistics Branch, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, 1990-1994.
³Racial/Ethnic Patterns of Cancer in the United States 1988-1992, National Cancer Institute.

Diana Ramos, MD, at-large representative on the MAC Governing Council provided much of the information presented here. These materials  and resources are provided for informational purposes only and do not indicate endorsement by the AMA. Contact your physician if you have a medical or health concern.