Word: cancerous
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Between 5% and 15% of those with persistent warts are expected to develop cancer, says Virologist Wayne Lancaster of Georgetown University. The most common by far is cancer of the cervix, but HPV has also been blamed for tumors of the vulva, vagina, anus and penis. The virus alone, however, probably does not cause cancer. Instead, say researchers, one or more of several co-factors seem to be required to trigger the disease. Among the suspected culprits: smoking, birth-control pills, and the presence of herpes and other venereal infections...
...incidence of cervical cancer has not matched the rise in HPV cases. But that is little comfort: there may be a latent period of five to 40 years before virus-associated cancers appear. Clinics are already seeing an increase of young women with Pap tests that show HPV-linked cervical dysplasia. These tissue abnormalities sometimes mean the cells are becoming malignant. Some researchers think HPV is involved in as many as 90% to 95% of all cases of dysplasia and cancer of the cervix...
Whatever their age, women with small tumors that have not invaded the lymph nodes have a 90% chance of surviving at least five years. As the disease spreads, however, the odds of survival drop sharply. Thus cancer experts agree that a woman's best hope for a cure, whatever her age, lies in finding tumors early. Mammography can detect tumors as small as an eighth of an inch in diameter. By contrast, most cancers detected by patients themselves are at least half an inch in diameter, and have been growing for eight to ten years, says Dr. Ferris Hall...
...infallible. There is a 1% chance of a false-positive result -- a mistaken diagnosis of a tumor -- and the anxiety, expense and pain associated with a biopsy. A graver problem is the risk of a false negative: about 20% of the time the X rays fail to detect cancers, which may be picked up by physical exam. "Is mammography worth it?" asks Eddy. Some women, he notes, upon hearing that ten years of screening will save 22 lives "will say, '22 out of 10,000, well, that'll be me.' Others will say, 'Take half a day off work...
...study rekindles a troubling debate about whether women under 50 benefit from regular mammograms to detect breast cancer...