Female Lower Genital Tract Cancer Prevention

Abstract

Female lower genital tract cancers ranks fourth common among all female cancers. They comprises cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers. They also share common carcinogenic causes which are oncogenic human papillomaviruses (HPV) infections. Therefore, similar ways of prevention could be applied to these cancers. Those are primary, secondary, and tertiary preventions. Primary prevention comprises preventing HPV transmission and preventive immunization against HPV. Secondary prevention comprises early detection of precancerous lesions by screening means in combination with treatment of the precancerous lesions detected. Vulvar lesion might be seen by a woman herself, however, health personnel are definitely better in doing that during a routine check-up visit for cervical cancer. Tertiary prevention comprises early diagnosis, staging, and effective treatment to these cancers. Although cervical and vaginal cancers still use clinical staging, radiologic and pathologic data has been integrated since 2018. Vulvar cancer has been surgically staged since 1988, and its staging also has been updated in 2018. By using effective primary and secondary prevention, the incidences of these cancers would be decreased. By using effective tertiary prevention, the persistent (resistant/ refractory) or recurrent rates would be decreased.