What Is Cervical Cancer?

What Is Cervical Cancer? Cancer starts when cells in the body begin to grow out of control. Cells in nearly any part of the body can become cancer, and can spread to other areas of the body. To learn more about how cancers start and spread, see What Is Cancer?1 Cervical cancer starts in the cells lining the cervix -the lower part of the uterus (womb). This is sometimes called the uterine cervix. The fetus grows in the body of the uterus (the upper part). The cervix connects the body of the uterus to the vagina (birth canal).

The cervix connects the body of the uterus (the upper part where a fetus grows) to the vagina (birth canal).Cancer starts when cells in the body begin to grow out of control.To learn more about how cancers start and spread, see What Is Cancer? 1 The cervix is made of two parts and is covered with two different types of cells.
The endocervix is the opening of the cervix that leads into the uterus.It is covered with glandular cells. q The exocervix (or ectocervix) is the outer part of the cervix that can be seen by the doctor during a speculum exam.It is covered in squamous cells. q The place where these two cell types meet in the cervix is called the transformation zone.The exact location of the transformation zone changes as you get older and if you give birth.Most cervical cancers begin in the cells in the transformation zone.

Abnormal changes in cells of the cervix
Cells in the transformation zone do not suddenly change into cancer.Instead, the normal cells of the cervix first gradually develop abnormal changes that can turn into cancer.Doctors use several terms to describe these cell changes, including cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL), and dysplasia.You might hear these abnormal changes referred to as pre-cancers or precancer changes.
When these abnormal changes in the cervix are found, they are graded on a scale of 1 to 3 based on how much of the cervical tissue looks abnormal.
In CIN1 (also called mild dysplasia or low grade SIL), not much of the tissue looks abnormal.Most often, these cells will change back to normal cells.q In CIN2 or CIN3 (also called moderate/severe dysplasia or high-grade SIL) more of the tissue looks abnormal.With these cell changes, there is higher risk that the cells can become cancer cells and will need to be watched closely or removed.
q Although cervical cancers start from cells with abnormal changes, only some women with these changes of the cervix will develop cancer.For most women, these abnormal cells will go away without any treatment.But, in some women these abnormal cells can turn into true (invasive) cancers.Treating abnormal changes in cervical cells can prevent almost all cervical cancers.
The goal of cervical cancer screening 2 is to find abnormal cells in the cervix or cervical cancer early when it is more treatable and curable.Regular screening can prevent cervical cancers and save lives.The tests for cervical cancer screening are the HPV test and the Pap test.Pre-cancerous changes can be detected by the Pap test 3 and treated to prevent cancer from developing.The HPV test 4 looks for infection by high-risk types of HPV that are more likely to cause pre-cancers and cancers of the cervix.HPV infection has no treatment, but a vaccine can help prevent it.
See Can Cervical Cancer Be Prevented? 5The specific types of treatment for abnormal screening tests are discussed in When Cervical Screening Test Results are Abnormal 6 .

Types of cervical cancer
Cervical cancers and cervical pre-cancers are classified by how they look in the lab s with a microscope.The main types of cervical cancers are squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.
Most (up to 9 out of 10) cervical cancers are squamous cell carcinomas.These cancers develop from cells in the exocervix.Squamous cell carcinomas most often begin in the transformation zone (where the exocervix joins the endocervix).q Most of the other cervical cancers are adenocarcinomas.Adenocarcinomas are cancers that develop from glandular cells.Cervical adenocarcinoma develops from the mucus-producing gland cells of the endocervix.q Less commonly, cervical cancers have features of both squamous cell carcinomas and adenocarcinomas.These are called adenosquamous carcinomas or mixed q carcinomas.
Although almost all cervical cancers are either squamous cell carcinomas or adenocarcinomas, other types of cancer also can develop in the cervix.These other types, such as melanoma 7 , sarcoma 8 , and lymphoma 9 , occur more commonly in other parts of the body.
Only the more common cervical cancer types are covered here.Incidence rates for cervical cancer q Mortality rates for cervical cancer q How common is cervical cancer?

Hyperlinks
The American Cancer Society's estimates for cervical cancer in the United States for 2024 are: About 13,820 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed.q About 4,360 women will die from cervical cancer.q Cervical pre-cancers are diagnosed far more often than invasive cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer is most frequently diagnosed in women between the ages of 35 and 44, with the average age being 50.It rarely develops in women younger than 20.
Many older women don't realize that they are still at risk of developing cervical cancer as they age.More than 20% of cervical cancers are found in women over 65.However, these cancers rarely occur in women who have been getting regular tests to screen for cervical cancer before they were 65.See Can Cervical Cancer Be Prevented? 1 and Cervical Cancer Screening Tests 2 to learn more about tests used to screen for cervical cancer.

Incidence rates for cervical cancer
Cervical cancer incidence rates decreased by more than half from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s, largely because of the increased use of screening, but they have stabilized over the past decade.However, in women ages 30-44, rates have increased 1.7% each year from 2012 to 2019.In contrast, rates declined 11% each year for women ages 20-24, probably reflecting the first signs of cancer prevention from HPV vaccination.

Mortality rates for cervical cancer
Cervical cancer was once one of the most common causes of cancer death for American women.The cervical cancer death rate has dropped by more than half since the mid-1970s because of prevention and screening, although rates have stabilized in recent years.The death rate in Black women and Native American women is about 65% higher than in White women.
Visit the American Cancer Society's Cancer Statistics Center 3 for more key statistics.New ways to prevent and treat cancer of the cervix are being researched.Some of the promising new developments are covered here.Immunotherapy q Targeted therapy q Radiation therapy q Chemotherapy q HPV vaccines q

Immunotherapy
Treatment of cervical cancer includes immunotherapy with drugs called checkpoint inhibitors.These drugs are generally only given to people with metastatic or recurrent disease, with or without chemo.Research is being done to determine if immunotherapy would work better with different combinations of chemo, or if it can be used for people with earlier-stage disease.

Targeted therapy
Current targeted therapy includes finding cells with changes in the RET and NTRK genes.Scientists are studying how other gene mutations found in cervical cancer cells can be targeted by specific drugs.Genes called oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, which control cell growth, are of particular interest.

Radiation therapy
Studies are being done to determine the best ways to use external beam therapy and brachytherapy to treat cervical cancer and still limit damage to normal tissue.Doctors are also looking for ways to use more focused radiation along with other treatments, like immunotherapy, 1 to treat advanced cervical cancers.

Chemotherapy
Many clinical trials are looking for better chemo drugs to treat cervical cancer.Research is ongoing to understand which specific combinations of chemo drugs allow for the best treatment results.

HPV vaccines
Vaccines have been developed to prevent infection with some of the high risk HPV types that are associated with cervical cancer.The current vaccines 2 are intended to produce immunity to HPV types that cause about 90% of cervical cancers.
Other vaccines are meant to help women who already have advanced cervical cancer.These vaccines produce an immune reaction to the parts of the virus (E6 and E7 proteins) that make the cervical cancer cells grow abnormally.It is hoped that this reaction will kill the cancer cells or stop them from growing.It is also being studied in early-stage cervical cancer to see if it can help decrease the chance of the cancer returning.