Earlier this month, the federal government announced $300 million in funding for a controversial vaccine that could virtually wipe out cervical cancer in Canada.
The funding will likely be put toward programs to vaccinate nine and 10-year-old girls against HPV ( human papillomavirus), the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world and one of the main causes of cervical cancer.
Every year, nearly 1500 Canadian women will be told they have invasive cervical cancer. Approximately, 420 of those women will not survive the disease.
If not prevented or treated, the disease has devastating effects for women at any age.
Nearly 15 per cent of all cervical cancers and 45 per cent of surgically treated cervical cancers occur in women under age 40.
Shirley Cisneros, 29, is one of those women. Newly married, Cisneros thought she was on top of her sexual health, but she recently received the devastating diagnosis.
"It's very hard because I am young; it's something very hard to deal with," Cisneros told CTV News.
Cisneros went for regular pap tests, which showed no signs of cancer, but after a car accident in December, the cancer took root and started to grow quickly.
Cervical cancer starts in the cells of the cervix, which is the lower portion of a woman's uterus.
Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are common treatments. If the cancer spreads to the uterus, a radical hysterectomy is usually performed leaving no chance for the woman to produce children.
Doctors at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital will perform a partial hysterectomy on Cisneros to salvage her fertility; a procedure only a handful of doctors in Canada can perform.
"It's taken a lot away from me as a woman, as a mother, a potential mother, as a human being because part of you is gone," Cisneros said.
Doctors say the disease is preventable, even more so with the HPV vaccine.
Dr. Al Covens of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre says up to three quarters of the women he treats for advanced cervical cancer have either never had a Pap test or were not properly followed up by their physician.
"If we had a screening program where every woman had an annual pap smear, and then a follow up, the incidence of cervical cancer should be negligible," Dr. Covens told CTV News.
Doctors anticipate a decrease in the number of women diagnosed with cervical cancer if preventative measures, like the HPV vaccine, are widely used.
The vaccine prevents infection for two out of the three strains of the virus that cause cervical cancer.
HPV is so rampant scientists estimate 75 per cent of women will come in contact with the virus in their lifetime, and many of them will never know they have been infected.
"I recommend that girls still get it, if people can afford it, because it will lessen that individual's risk," Covens said of the vaccine.
The medical community has hailed the vaccine as a significant advance in cancer prevention, but not everyone is touting the vaccine as a positive medical breakthrough.
Not all women will be able to afford the $400 vaccine if they aren't covered by private insurance.
Critics also say that vaccinating preteen girls will lead to promiscuity and precocious sexual behaviour.
The fact remains, nearly four women a day are diagnosed with cervical cancer and one Canadian woman dies every day from the disease.
"Cervical cancer is not something small, it's not to be taken lightly, it's not one of the 'better cancers,' cancer is cancer," Cisneros said.
With a report from CTV's Avis Favaro
