Detect, protect, respect

What does one survivor say to another when they meet?

Recently, “castaways” of a popular reality show couldn’t help but be all praises to the people who greatly deserve the title “survivor.”

“It’s an honor for us to stand side by side with these true survivors,” Gigit Sulit of Survivor Philippines says, referring to the five women beside him who had fought cervical cancer for a time in their lives and had successfully won the battle.

According to Dr. Cecilia Llave, chair of the UP-PGH Cancer Institute and program director of the Cervical Cancer Prevention Network (CECAP), women need to know that cervical cancer can be cured if detected early. This type of cancer, caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), is the second most common cancer in women worldwide — with 500,000 new cases and 250,000 deaths reported each year. Over 80 percent of cases occur in developing countries including the Philippines, where it is ranked as the second most common cancer afflicting Filipino women. “For more than 20 years, the incidence and mortality rate for cervical cancer remained unchanged with one out of three Filipino women dying of the disease annually, and three out of four in five years. Yet few women realize that cervical cancer is actually treatable if diagnosed early,” Llave stresses.

To further raise awareness on the prevention of the disease, Bravehearts was launched in November 2007. It is a multi-sectoral crusade for cervical cancer prevention with a social and moral responsibility to provide access to evidence-based information, beyond just generating publicity to impact benefits for the health of women. Bravehearts is a joint project of the Cancer Institute Foundation (CIF)-CECAP, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Campaigns and Grey.

According to information material from Bravehearts, cervical cancer is commonly transmitted through sexual contact even without penetration (i.e. skin to skin (rubbing), genital contact, oral, manual). Men and women may get it and pass it on without knowing it since there are no symptoms early in the disease, but can be detected with screening. Dr. Llave says: “One of the primary goals of CECAP is actually to establish cervical cancer screenings throughout the Philippines by using the Single Visit Approach (SVA), which consists of screening through visual inspection through acetic acid and immediate treatment through cryotherapy,” says Llave. “There is also a need to counsel healthy lifestyle and vaccination, which can help prevent infection from human papilloma virus, which is the necessary cause of cervical cancer.”

Campaigning for prevention and early detection, Dr. Llave suggests that for those who can afford Pap smear, go see your doctor and have the procedure done. But her heart bleeds for the women in far-flung barrios in the country who can’t afford the medical procedure.

So her team of doctors and other Bravehearts advocates educate these women about SVA and Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA). According to Dr. Llave, SVA combines both screening and treatment in one session. It uses an effective, low-resource screening method called VIA, a simple technique that uses vinegar to detect precancerous lesions on the cervix and requires much less equipment and time investment than Pap smear. Cryotherapy, on the other hand, is a process where the areas with lesions are frozen using a common liquid coolant like carbon dioxide, effectively eliminating the abnormality and preventing possible progression to cancer.

Furthermore, she reiterates that prevention is better than cure. So she also recommends vaccination for women 10 years old and above. GlaxoSmithKline’s cervical cancer vaccine, Dr. Llave adds, provides significant protection for women against the two most common cancer-causing HPV types — HPV types 16 and 18. The GSK cervical cancer vaccine does not demonstrate, at the moment, the need for a booster shot even after six years of vaccination. HPV types 16 and 18, together, are responsible for over 70 percent of cervical cancer cases in Asia Pacific. GSK’s cervical cancer vaccine has also shown efficacy against persistent infection caused by 12 other cancer-causing HPV types beyond HPV 16 and 18.

“Cervical cancer is preventable and treatable, when detected early,” Dr. Cecilia Llave repeats. And she will never get tired of reiterating this message, if only to fulfill CECAP’s mission to eradicate cervical cancer and save women from this great danger.