Sunway Medical Centre calls for continuous education on cervical screening

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 (Bernama) -- Continuous education on the importance of cervical screening and the availability of self-test kits will help overcome possible hesitation and embarrassment for women to come for pap smear test, said Sunway City's Sunway Medical Centre consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Syeda Nureena Zaidi.  

She said currently, there is a growing acceptance of self-test kits in Malaysia.

This, she said, is evidenced by a recent Malaysian study which found more than 80 per cent of the participants perceived the self-sampling method as easy, convenient, and not embarrassing and they were confident in performing the test.

According to Dr Syeda Nureena, the self-test kits, which test for human papillomavirus (HPV), are as effective as conventional pap smears and physician-sampling HPV tests with the advantage that it can be done by the women themselves.

She said the national school-based HPV immunisation programme targets 13-year-old female children due to the vaccine being most effective if given before HPV exposure.

"However, it still provides benefits after HPV exposure and can be taken up to the age of 45," she added.

She also noted that married women too could still get the benefit of protection against certain types of HPV by taking the vaccine to reduce the risk of cervical cancer.

She said the development of initiatives such as Program ROSE, a primary HPV-based cervical screening programme that integrates self-sampling and digital technology, which organises community health campaigns in rural areas, was a tremendous step towards increasing access in these areas.

In Malaysia, cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among women, accounting for 6.2 per cent of new cancer cases from 2011 to 2016; behind breast cancer (34.1 per cent) and colorectal cancer (11.1 per cent).

However, cervical cancer can be prevented, and it happens to be one of the most preventable cancers.

Dr Syeda Nureena said many women do not attend regular screenings even when the resources are readily available due to many reasons, including fear, embarrassment, inconvenience and lack of awareness.

“These issues are even more prevalent in the rural setting. To overcome this, education targeting increasing awareness on the importance of prevention versus treatment is important,” she said.

She said the incidence of cervical cancer increases at 35 years and peaks between 50 and 74 years, adding that multiple factors which contributed towards the increasing cases of cervical cancer included the emergence of more diseases that cause weakened immune response.

According to Dr Syeda Nureena, this in turn affects the persistence of HPV infection, which is closely linked with cervical cancer, while poor uptake of cervical cancer screening also affects the detection and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions that cause the increasing numbers of cervical cancer cases, she added.

“There is a definite discrepancy in cervical cancer cases between rural and urban areas. Those in urban areas have better access to regular screening and adequate treatment.

“Those in rural areas have limited access to preventive measures and cervical cancer is often not identified until it has further advanced and symptoms have developed,” she noted.

Dr Syeda Nureena further explained that women can reduce the risk of cervical cancer through HPV vaccination and regular screening with pap smear where the cervix is examined and samples are sent to be checked for the presence of any cancerous cells.

"A pap smear is able to detect pre-cancerous cells (cells that are abnormal but have not become cancerous yet) and the women can get themselves treated. In this way, the cells are removed before the development of cancer," she said.

She advised women to pap smear once every three years.

She said the most common symptom of cervical cancer is bleeding after intercourse, while other symptoms included bleeding in between the menstrual period, vaginal bleeding after menopause, blood-stained vaginal discharge or pelvic pain.

-- BERNAMA