Guidelines underestimate US cervical cancer rates and older women’s risk, study finds

Rates of invasive cervical cancer in the United States may be considerably higher than generally thought and may continue to rise after age 65—the age at which many guidelines say that screening may be stopped—a new study says.1 The study also found wide differences in these rates between racial groups.

Previous estimates of invasive cervical cancer rates in the US have included in the “at risk” population women who had had a hysterectomy—even though in almost all hysterectomies the cervix is removed, eliminating a woman’s risk of developing this type of cancer. The prevalence of hysterectomy among women aged over 20 in the US is 20.1%.

In the new study, published early online by the journal Cancer, researchers …