PRIMARY AND SECONDARY PREVENTION OF CERVICAL CANCER IN PATIENTS WITH CERVICAL CANCER AND THEIR FAMILIES

Introduction: Cervical cancer (CC) is the 4th most incident cancer in the world and the 3rd most found in women in Brazil. It is associated with HPV infection and preventable with the resources available in the Unified Health System, which offers cervical cytopathological examination (Pap smear) and the quadrivalent HPV vaccine. Insufficient coverage and low quality of the Pap smear, in addition to difficulties in financing and infrastructure are mentioned as causes of the failure to reduce its incidence. Objective: To evaluate the practice of primary and secondary prevention against CC in diagnosed patients and their families. Method: Prospective, cross-sectional study with an analytical component. Held in a referral hospital for the oncology service, using an adapted form. Results: Epidemiological data were collected from 104 women with CC and 59 family members between 9-21 years old and 101 between 25-69 years old. The epidemiological profile revealed, mostly, patients with low education (49% with less than 9 years of schooling), brown and black (76%), and age between 30-49 years in 53%. Of these women, 96% were aware of the preventive exam, but 14% of them had never had the exam before diagnosis. Of the studied patients, 86% were aware of the HPV vaccine, the majority being informed by television. Despite knowledge about the existence of the vaccine, 57% of patients were unaware of their target audience and half of them did not know its function. It is worth mentioning that 100% of women who knew the vaccine function (51), answered that they would vaccinate a relative against HPV. Among respondents who would not vaccinate relatives against HPV (17%), all responded that they did not know the function of the vaccine. Regarding family members aged 9-21 years, 51 of these girls (81%) were instructed to carry out HPV prevention, pointing to the school as the main instructive means. The reason given for not having vaccinated these young women was the lack of information about its availability. About family members aged 25-69 years, 66% are aged 30-49 years. In the group of family members, 27 do not regularly perform the preventive exam and the main reasons mentioned are difficulty in access (22%) and fear of the exam (22%). Conclusion: despite advances in prevention programs, there is still a great deal of misinformation about the topic in the population. In addition, the coverage of prophylactic measures is still deficient in the country.