Has the Incidence of Invasive Cervical Cancer in Older U.S. Women Been Underestimated?

Hysterectomy is common in the U.S., and the vast majority of these surgeries involve removal of the cervix as well as the uterus. Because total hysterectomy protects women from future invasive cervical cancer (ICC), hysterectomy rates affect estimates of ICC incidence. Using national surveillance data, researchers calculated hysterectomy-corrected, age-specific incidence of ICC in U.S. women.

In contrast to the relative decline in uncorrected ICC rates with age, rates corrected for hysterectomy continued to rise after age 39, peaking among women aged 65 to 69. In addition, correction revealed greater disparity in ICC incidence between white women and black women, with the latter group having higher incidence than previously thought.