WOMEN’S HEALTH

Study: Cervical Cancer in U.S. Deadlier Than Thought

Mortality for black Americans on par with that in sub-Saharan Africa.

The death rate in the U.S. from cervical cancer is higher than estimated, according to a study published in Cancer on Monday. Additionally, disparity in disease mortality for black women and white women is significantly wider than previously known, with a rate of 10.1 per 100,000 for black women and 4.7 per 100,000 in white women. The study found that the mortality rate of black American women due to cervical cancer is comparable to that of women in poor and developing counties. Even more alarming is that the study’s finding that the majority of these deaths are highly preventable. Cervical cancer can be detected by screening and managed and treated with observation and appropriate care. “We have screenings that are great, but many women in America are not getting them,” Kathleen M. Schmeler, associate professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, told The New York Times. Schmeler added that her concerns are growing: “[The] repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which covers screening, and the closing of family planning clinics, which do much of that screening.”