"I never missed a single cervical cancer screening that comes around every two years. But one day, I started bleeding outside my menstrual period, then felt a heavy pulling sensation in my lower abdomen and even developed back pain."
Seo, a 45-year-old working mother with elementary school-aged children, had diligently undergone the government-funded Pap smear every cycle since she turned 20. Though somewhat cumbersome, receiving results that read "no abnormalities" always brought her peace of mind. She occasionally experienced vaginal bleeding unrelated to her menstrual cycle but dismissed it as a temporary symptom. It was only after she developed pain during urination and discovered blood in her urine that she visited a hospital. Seo was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer. The normal findings she had trusted for decades turned out to be "false negatives" — results that failed to detect cancer cells that were already present.
Cervical cancer is a female reproductive cancer that develops in the cervix, the opening of the uterus. According to the Korea Central Cancer Registry, cervical cancer accounted for 1.1% (3,144 cases) of the 288,613 new cancer cases diagnosed in South Korea in 2023. Compared to 2001, when 4,655 patients were diagnosed and the disease ranked sixth in incidence after stomach, lung, liver, colorectal, and breast cancers, the incidence rate has dropped sharply over two decades. As of 2023, cervical cancer ranks 17th in overall cancer incidence for both sexes combined, and 11th when limited to women. By age group, women in their 40s accounted for the largest share at 22.8%, followed closely by those in their 50s (22.6%) and 60s (19.1%). The biggest factors behind the decline are the national cancer screening program launched in 2002 and the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which was included in the National Immunization Program (NIP) in 2016.
