Study on cervical cancer takes its pick from the kitchen shelf

NEW DELHI, MARCH 13: Using nothing more than plain old vinegar and a trained eye, researchers say they can now safely detect cervical can...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 13: Using nothing more than plain old vinegar and a trained eye, researchers say they can now safely detect cervical cancers. American scientists call it a “promising alternative” to existing methods, and can even be undertaken by “non-physicians in primary care settings.”

Cervical cancer is the second most common form of cancer afflicting women after breast cancer. Approximately 500,000 new cases are identified each year worldwide. Mortality is very high: There are nearly 300,000 deaths annually, with 80 per cent in developing countries.

Early detection of cervical cancers is therefore crucial. In India, the usefulness of this low-cost alternative could lie in the fact that it can even be employed by primary health care workers or by dais (mid-wives) with a little training.

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The study, carried out on over 10,000 women in Zimbabwe by researchers of the Johns Hopkins University, has been published in the latest issue of Lancet.

The acetic acid method offers an inexpensive,easy test that changes the colour of precancerous tissue and could be used to screen women for cervical cancer even at the very early stages.

The study shows that midwives who painted a patient’s cervix with acetic acid (vinegar) and then visually inspected the area accurately detected more than 75 percent of potential cancers. Tissue with pre-cancerous lesions turns white when exposed to vinegar. Once an early diagnosis has been carried out, further confirmatory tests need to be done.

The greatest impact of the vinegar technique is likely to be felt in rural areas where women still don’t have access to hi-tech diagnostic facilities.

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Although this method has been known for a while, no one had ever compared its usefulness against the more prevalent but expensive and cumbersome test called Pap Smear test.

A Pap smear involves taking a sample or a smear from the cervix of a patient and examining it under a microscope to detect changes that have taken place in the cells and predict whether it is malignantor not. A Pap smear test costs about Rs 50 and a report takes about three days, says Dilip Das, chief of the Institute of Cytology and Preventive Oncology, New Delhi. This institute still carries out only about 15,000 tests annually, a mere drop in the ocean if one looks at the magnitude of the problem.

In comparison, the new method now validated by the team from Johns Hopkins costs almost nothing and the results are instantaneous. In addition, the acetic acid test identified almost twice as many cases of disease as did Pap smears, say the researchers.

Cervical cancer is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). Infection with HPV usually occurs in the early years of sexual activity but it takes up to 20 years for it to develop into a full-blown malignant tumor.