| Alternative Names: | Cancer - cervix
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| Symptoms: | Most often, cervical cancer in its earliest and most treatable stages does not cause any symptoms. When there are symptoms, the most common are: - Persistent vaginal discharge, which may be pale, watery, pink, brown, blood streaked, or dark and foul-smelling
- Abnormal vaginal bleeding, especially between menstrual periods, after intercourse or douching, and after menopause, which gradually becomes heavier and longer
Symptoms of advanced cervical cancer may include: - Loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue
- Pelvic, back, or leg pain
- Leaking of urine or feces from the vagina
- Bone fracture
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| Signs and tests: | Invasive cervical cancer often appears as an irregular fleshy growth, often firm or hard, that tends to bleed easily. But even on pelvic examination by a doctor, pre-cancers and even early cancers of the cervix are often not visible to the naked eye. Special tests are necessary to diagnose cervical pre-cancers and cancers:
- Pap smears screen for -- but do not diagnose -- cervical pre-cancers and cancers
- Pap smears that are collected or read by special methods (ThinPrep, AutoPap, PapNet) are now available that can be useful in certain situations or in laboratories for quality control
- Colposcopy is an examination of the cervix under magnification in order to locate an abnormality of the cervix
- Biopsy, colposcopy, or sometimes the use of LASER (a loop electrode) or other instrument allows a diagnosis to be made
- When cervical cancer is found, additional tests -- such as X-rays, using an instrument to look into the bladder (cystoscopy), and rectum and colon (colonoscopy) -- are used to determine how far the cancer has spread and what stage the disease is in
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