Global Health Asia-Pacific September 2020 September 2020 | Page 30

Cancer News
Cervical cancer
screening should start
at 25
Advances against the malignancy suggest
younger healthy women don’t require screening
Checking urine can monitor
progression of skin cancer
The analysis of easy-to-detect cancer biomarkers might replace
painful and long procedures
Fluorescent molecules in urine could be a sign that malignant
melanomas are responding to treatment, according to a study
conducted in Slovakia. Simple detection of these biomarkers in the lab
offers a simple and non-invasive way to check on the progression of a
common form of skin cancer.
Melanomas can be aggressive and spread easily to other parts of the
body, so monitoring them is an important tool to keep them at bay. But
the current process involves surgery to collect bits of tumour cells to
analyse in the lab, a long and invasive procedure some patients tend to
delay out of fear.
To find a better alternative, researchers analysed the urine samples
of both patients with malignant melanoma and healthy people to
measure the presence of metabolism-linked molecules that cancer cells
produce while growing. They found that the levels of these molecules
corresponded to cancer stages.
“Our results show that we can successfully use urine, a simply
and non-invasively collected biological material, to determine the
progression and treatment response of malignant melanoma,” said
Dr Ivana Špaková, a researcher at Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in
Košice, in a press release. “The results highlight the potential of ‘waste
metabolites’ in monitoring disease. This method is a user friendly and
straightforward technique which could be performed using standard
laboratory equipment.”
T
he American Cancer Society (ACS) has updated
its guidelines on cervical cancer screening,
recommending women with a cervix get screened from
the age of 25 with human papillomavirus (HPV) testing
every five years until they turn 6�.
Since HPV testing is not yet widespread, another
option is to do a pap test every three years to check if
any cancerous or precancerous cells are present.
Because most cervical cancers are caused by the
HPV during a process that takes years, a negative HPV
test offers the strongest evidence that patients are free
of the malignancy.
Previous guidelines advised women to begin
screening at 21 years, but the decrease in the
instances of precancerous changes in the cervix due
to widespread HPV vaccination and the low incidence
of full-blown cervical cancer in the 21-24 age group
convinced the ACS to update its advice.
“We estimate that, compared with the currently
recommended strategy of cytology (Pap testing) alone
beginning at age 21 and switching to co-testing at age
30 years, starting with primary HPV testing at age 25
prevented 13 percent more cervical cancers and seven
percent more cervical cancer deaths,” said Dr Debbie
Saslow, managing director, HPV & GYN Cancers for the
American Cancer Society, in a press release.
Cervical cancer is a malignancy experts say we
could potentially wipe out provided that we implement
appropriate preventive measures.
“Cervical cancer could be eradicated within our
lifetime in the United States if we do it right. It requires
increasing HPV vaccination rates, regular screening,
early diagnosis, and new therapeutics. But the most
critical steps are boosting vaccine rates and screening,”
Dr Alexi Wright, director of gynaecologic oncology and
outcomes research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told
CNN.
28 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific.com