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Combating Cervical Cancer Is A Battle We Can Win GET THE FACTS AND GET TESTED! Visit the Arkansas Cervical Cancer Task Force website at www.arkansascancercoalition.org/cctf.html, the Arkansas Department of Health BreastCare website at www.ARBreastCare.com, or call 1-877-670-CARE to learn more about the BreastCare program. Cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable. Screening tools can detect the disease at an early, curable stage. The federal Food and Drug Administration has approved a preventive vaccine. The state of Arkansas provides free Pap tests for low-income residents. But women are still dying. For me, as for so many Arkansans, the issue is personal. Cancer touched my family when it took my mother at far too young an age. What I find so troubling about cervical cancer is that it continues to take a toll even though tests and vaccines can prevent it. In 2007, the American Cancer Society estimated that nearly 3,700 women in the United States would die of cervical cancer and that 11,150 new cases would be diagnosed. Those numbers represent a significant decline from 40 years ago, when the disease was the leading cause of cancer deaths among American women. Widespread use of the Papanicolaou (Pap) test, which detects cancerous or potentially cancerous cells, triggered the decline. But women are still dying. |
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