Is Cervical Cancer Curable?

January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month. This disease is curable, but whether it goes away permanently depends on several factors. 

Early detection and a favorable response to cancer treatment increase the chances.

The American Cancer Society predicts that doctors will diagnose around 14,480 cases of cervical cancer in 2022.

In some cases, cervical cancer is curable. Doctors consider a person as cured when the cancer goes away during treatment and never returns.

However, it is difficult to know for sure that cancer will never come back. Therefore, many doctors use the term “remission” instead. Partial remission means there are fewer signs and symptoms of the cancer. Complete remission means there are no detectable signs of cancer.

Sometimes, people in remission remain cancer-free for the rest of their lives. Sometimes, the cancer returns later on. Some doctors may say a person is “cured” if they stay in complete remission for 5 years or more, but this cannot fully guarantee it will never return.

According to previous studies, many people who receive treatment for early-stage cervical cancer enter remission, with only 10–15% experiencing a recurrence.

What are the survival rates for cervical cancer?

Survival rates are a way of measuring how long people live following their diagnosis. The average survival rate for cervical cancer differs depending on the cancer stage. Doctors use four stages to classify cervical cancer:

• stage I, where cancer cells are only in the cervix
• stage II, where cancer cells have spread to the upper two-thirds of the vagina or the tissue around the uterus
• stage III, where the cancer has spread to the lower third of the vagina or the pelvic wall, and lymph nodes
• stage IV, where the cancer has spread beyond the pelvis, such as to the lining of the rectum or bladder, or other areas

More advanced stages of cervical cancer have lower average survival rates. However, this does not predict what will happen in every case.

The SEER database provides specific survival rate statistics based on the percentage of people who survive for at least 5 years following their cancer diagnosis, compared to the rest of the population. They are:

• 92% for localized cervical cancer
• 58% for regional cervical cancer, which is in or around the pelvis
• 17% for distant cervical cancer, which has spread further away 

What factors influence the outlook?

Alongside the stage, other factors that can affect the outlook for a person with cervical cancer include:

• their overall health status
• whether cancer cells have spread to their blood or lymph nodes
• how well they respond to treatment