Concrete case: An opportunity to improve cervical cancer prevention-primary and secondary prevention of cervical cancer in patients with cervical cancer and their families

Abstract

Background: cervical cancer (CC) reveals regional and social inequalities and should be understood not only as an oncological indicator, but essentially as an indicator of social vulnerability and health care needs.CC is the second most incident and the most deadly among women from the Northeast’S Brazil and the third most incident in Brazil Although the HPV vaccine coverage and the Pap smear test are available through the Brazilian public health system, the coverage of the target population is low. objective: Verify the conditions of access/use of the health system by women with cervical cancer (CC) and their families. Methods: Cross-sectional study involving cancer patients admitted to IMIP between 2016 and 2019. The variable data were related to the sociodemographic profile, preventive examination, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and the influence of the diagnosis of CC on the search for preventive and screening measures by women's family members. Results: Out of the 285 participants,between 9-21 years old and 101 between 25-69 years old. Of the patients studied,55,8% lives urban area. It has a higher performance of biopsies in the public sector (59,5%). The sociodemographic analysis highlights the non-white race (78,2%) and only 6,8% with complete high school. The knowledge about performing the Pap smear reached 88,9% and the disinformation about the HPV reached 44,4%.the school was the largest source of information about the HPV vaccine (30,6%). Related to the influence of cancer, 62,2% said that young family members underwent HPV vaccination and 82,2% related their diagnosis to search for preventive in family members over 25 years old. a much higher percentage than vaccination coverage and preventive exam in the study region report that the diagnosis of cancer influenced the decision to vaccinate (42%) and update the pap test (69%). about 30% of patients had never taken the pap test. the early start (15 - 19y) of the pap test was not significant for the periodic performance of the pap test. 46% reported the lack of information about the importance of the exam as a reason for not performing it and 34% reported fear. conclusion :Strengthening educational activities and offering vaccines against HPV and Pap smears in the diagnosis of a case of cervical cancer can be an opportunity to expand the coverage of preventive measures more effectively among people close to the patient and her community, which cannot be missed. The school was an important source of information about the HPV vaccine and should be directly involved in this fight.Reducing an inequality cycle.