Rates of Primary and Secondary Prevention of Cervical Cancer: A Study in a Province in the South of Italy

Abstract

In Italy, cervical cancer represents the fifth most prevalent cancer in women under 50 years of age and is one of the most commonly detected lesions globally. Given the developing burden of the disease and the availability of both primary and secondary prevention measures, their accurate surveillance is of paramount importance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the trends in cervical cancer screening adherence in the period between 2020 and 2022, as well as to evaluate positive tests, identifying the most frequently associated genotypes and the vaccination coverage. The study sample was made up of 6880 women from the health district of Messina. We highlighted that there was a high proportion of positive results in the investigated period, with a high prevalence of HSIL. Moreover, HPV vaccination coverage was clearly inadequate, as was adherence to screening, both far away from WHO goals. This finding is probably linked to inadequate communication and awareness of the issue in the population and to the lack of data relating to tests carried out privately. In accordance with existing data in the literature, the introduction of the HPV-DNA test in Sicily made it possible to identify women positive for the genotypes most frequently involved in the etiopathogenesis of neoplastic lesions (genotypes 16 and 18), as well as for those in the “others” category, which should be investigated because some of them could have an impact on carcinogenicity and, for this reason, a future vaccine including them could represent a new prevention weapon.

Keywords

• cervical cancer
• HPV
• vaccine
• prevention
• PAP test
• screening