News
US poll reveals ‘significant’ gaps in women’s knowledge about cervical cancer
Over 70 per cent of women have delayed getting a Pap test, the US medtech company BD has found
New findings indicate a significant gap in women’s knowledge about the primary causes of cervical cancer and the most effective means of prevention.
Despite being one of the few cancers that is almost entirely preventable, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), 14,000 women in the US are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and more than 4,000 women die from it.
The online survey of US women between 18 and 64, conducted by The Harris Poll, found that 71 per cent of respondents have delayed getting a Pap test, also known as a smear test.
Detecting cervical cancer early with a Pap smear can give women a greater chance at a cure. The test can also detect changes in a woman’s cervical cells that suggest cancer may develop in the future.
However, if the changes are not detected and treated appropriately, precancerous cells can turn into cervical cancer, experts warn.
Around 15 per cent of American women say their last OB/GYN visit for a routine care or check-up was more than three years ago, with nearly one in 10 saying they have never had a Pap test.
About one in 10 hispanic and black women say they have never had an OB/GYN visit for routine care and similar proportions say they have never had a Pap test.
When asked why they have delayed getting a Pap test, Hispanic women are more likely to report feeling embarrassed, afraid it would hurt or unable to access a OB/GYN.
“Racial and ethnic minorities, rural residents, sexual and gender minorities and those with limited English proficiency often face cultural, economic and geographical factors that preclude them from obtaining critical health screenings, including Pap and HPV tests,” said Brooke Story, worldwide president of Integrated Diagnostic Solutions for BD, the US medtech company that published the findings.
“Being that January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, there is no better time to analyse the sentiment women hold around such screenings.
“The survey results underscore that lack of knowledge is one of the biggest barriers to receiving timely screening.
“We need more patient-centered communications to educate everyone, including and especially marginalised and underserved groups, in addition to providing greater access to critical diagnostic tools and services.”
As many as 75 per cent of American women say one of their 2023 resolutions would be to get on track with their annual health screening appointments, like OB/GYN visits.
While 91 per cent say they are knowledgeable about women’s health in general, fewer report being knowledgeable about more specific aspects, such as how often they should get a Pap test or HPV test that looks for the virus responsible for causing cervical cancer.
The study found that 67 per cent of American women were unaware that almost all cervical cancers are caused by HPV.
Overall, 47 per cent of American women say they don’t understand the difference between a Pap test and an HPV test, with Black women (58 per cent) more likely to agree with this than non-Hispanic white women (44 per cent).
Similarly, 66 per cent of did not know that nearly all sexually active men and women get HPV at some point in their lives, while 61 per cent did not know there are different types of HPV strains.
More than 50 per cent of American women mistakenly believe that Pap tests screen for a variety of STDs, while 67 per cent mistakenly believe that women aged 30 to 65 need a Pap test every year.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and US Preventive Services Task Force recommend screening begin at 21 years of age, with Pap testing every three years and average-risk individuals aged 30 years and older screen every five years with primary HPV testing or co-testing.
The American Cancer Society recommends screening begin at age 25 with primary HPV screening.
An early PET scan after one cycle of chemotherapy may help predict how aggressive breast cancer responds to treatment, a study suggests.
Research led by The Institute of Cancer Research, London and King’s College London suggests that an early scan taken after one cycle of chemotherapy could help predict how well a patient’s cancer will respond to treatment.
The study focused on patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease in which cancer cells lack receptors for the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, as well as the HER2 protein.
Patients with TNBC are usually treated with chemotherapy prior to surgery. While many respond well, residual disease at surgery, typically around six months later, is associated with a significantly poorer prognosis. Identifying people sooner who are unlikely to respond remains a major clinical challenge.
The research explored whether using PET imaging shortly after treatment begins, rather than relying only on MRI scans later in the treatment process, could provide earlier insight into how a patient’s cancer is responding. Twenty-two patients were recruited, with fourteen undergoing FDG-PET scans before treatment and after the first cycle of chemotherapy.
The findings, published in Clinical Cancer Research, showed that changes seen on PET scans after just one cycle of chemotherapy were strongly associated with subsequent response, including whether there was no detectable cancer, known as a complete response, by the end of treatment. Importantly, early PET response showed stronger associations with treatment outcomes than standard mid-treatment MRI scans in this study.
Being able to identify patients who are not responding well at an early stage could allow clinicians to adjust treatment sooner or consider alternative approaches. These findings may also support future strategies to better tailor treatment intensity to individual patients.
The study also compared two types of PET tracers, FDG and FLT, to determine which was most suitable. While both met the study’s technical criteria, FDG-PET was selected for further evaluation due to its better image quality, greater consistency and wider use in clinical practice.
The research also explored how imaging changes after just one cycle of chemotherapy relate to the body’s immune response to treatment. Biopsies taken before and after the first cycle of chemotherapy showed that an increase in immune cells within the tumour was strongly associated with both early PET changes and improved treatment outcomes.
The researchers emphasise that these findings now need to be validated in larger studies. Future work will aim to confirm these results in broader patient groups and explore more accessible imaging approaches, such as ultrasound, alongside PET and MRI.
Sheeba Irshad, professor of cancer immunology at King’s College London and lead of the Breast Cancer Now KCL Research Unit, said:
“In patients who had PET scans both before treatment and after the first cycle, we found that this early scan could predict whether they were likely to achieve a complete response by the end of treatment. These findings highlight the potential of early imaging to guide treatment decisions, and now need to be validated in larger, modern clinical trials.”
Andrew Tutt, professor of breast oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:
“Research that helps us determine early who is already benefitting from standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy and who might benefit from clinical trials to find better treatments is vital. This study shows that FDG-PET may have great value in this regard. We hope to be able to design studies that further investigate and validate these findings.”
The study was supported by funding from King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Breast Cancer Now, Cancer Research UK, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.
We are excited unveil the three finalists competing for one of the Femtech World Awards’ most coveted honours: the Startup of the Year Award, sponsored by Future Fertility.
This award celebrates an early-stage company making a bold impact in women’s health through innovation, vision and execution.
The winner will be announced at our virtual ceremony on 19 June, with the decision made by a representative from category sponsor Future Fertility.
Congratulations to the shortlist and thank you to everyone who entered or nominated.
Startup of the Year Shortlist
Hello Inside is the first women’s health AI company to turn daily metabolic signals into outcomes women feel and healthcare systems reimburse.
Women’s health has long been under-researched, and current AI benchmarks fail on women’s health questions roughly sixty percent of the time.
Hello Inside built the architecture to close that gap.
Across four years and 12,000+ validated metabolic profiles, three in four women improve at least one symptom within ninety days.
They lose four kilograms in three months, moving from overweight into the healthy range. In a clinical study with Alisa Vitti’s Flo Living, 91.9 per cent reduced PMS burden within sixty days.
U-Ploid is an early-stage biotechnology company tackling one of the most fundamental challenges in fertility care: the sharp, age-related decline in egg quality that limits outcomes across IVF and egg freezing.
While much of the field focuses on improving assessment and selection, U-Ploid is developing a first-in-class therapeutic approach designed to improve egg quality itself by addressing the biological causes of age-related chromosomal errors.
Supported by strong preclinical evidence and now advancing into human studies, U-Ploid combines scientific rigour, regulatory discipline and long-term vision to help redefine what is possible in fertility care.
Gestational diabetes is a strong risk factor for future type 2 diabetes, even in women with normal pre-pregnancy weight, according to a study at the University of Gothenburg.
The researchers call for earlier testing and better follow-up.
“Our results show that gestational diabetes functions as a kind of stress test for the body’s ability to manage blood sugar, and identifies women with a greatly increased risk of future type 2 diabetes”, said Jon Edqvist, PhD and affiliated to research at the University of Gothenburg, and operating room nurse at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
Gestational diabetes is a special type of diabetes that can affect pregnant women.
The condition is defined as elevated blood sugar levels, without previously known diabetes. Treatment involves self-monitoring of blood sugar, advice on lifestyle habits and, if necessary, medication.
Identifying gestational diabetes is important because the disease increases the risk of complications such as preeclampsia, the need for a cesarean section and high birth weight for the baby.
Those who have had gestational diabetes are also at higher risk of later developing type 2 diabetes.
In the current study, published in eClinicalMedicine, researchers now show that gestational diabetes is a strong indicator of future risk of developing type 2 diabetes, even in women with normal weight before pregnancy.
Elevated risk even with normal weight
The study is based on data from the Medical Birth Registry on just over 1.15 million first-time mothers in Sweden, who gave birth between 1987 and 2019. 16,870 women with confirmed gestational diabetes were compared with age-matched women without the diagnosis. The median follow-up period was nine years.
The results show that women with a BMI of 35 and above, i.e. severe obesity, had an almost tenfold increased risk of developing gestational diabetes compared to women with normal weight.
The risk of subsequent type 2 diabetes also increased with higher BMI, but it was significantly increased even with normal weight, which the researchers describe as particularly worrying.
More follow-up and more studies
The researchers behind the study welcome the recently updated recommendations on gestational diabetes in Sweden, where a higher proportion of pregnant women at increased risk are expected to be offered testing earlier in pregnancy, and if necessary, interventions.
“Diagnostics and care of gestational diabetes have looked very different in different parts of the country,” said Annika Rosengren, professor at the University of Gothenburg.
“There is a need for both improved follow-up after gestational diabetes, and more studies that investigate how such follow-up affects future health and prognosis”
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