In the United States, cancer continues to be the second most common cause of death behind only heart disease. In 2023, the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be close to 2 million new cases of cancer and just over 600,000 deaths.
One cancer that we must talk about, especially during February’s Black History Month because of the disproportionate way it affects women of color, is cervical cancer.
According to the World Health Organization, cervical cancer is the fourth most common form of cancer among women globally. In this country, the American Cancer Society estimates that there will be roughly 13,960 new diagnoses of invasive cervical cancer and 4,310 deaths from the disease this year alone. Those numbers should shock you. They translate into a death rate of nearly 31 percent for a disease that is not only almost entirely preventable through vaccination and screenings, but is also treatable and curable when it’s caught early.