Lilac March is awareness month about the importance of preventing cervical cancer. For early diagnosis, the State Department of Health (SES-TO) distributes collection kits and the receipt of cytology samples in liquid media to 119 municipalities in Tocantins, with an analytical capacity of 3.5 thousand samples per month. The analyzes are carried out at the Tocantins Central Public Health Laboratory (Lacen-TO).
Lacen-TO’s work began in August 2022 and the exams are carried out as a strategy to identify women at greater risk of developing cervical cancer, which is preventable, as well as to support the follow-up of women identified with low or high degree to reference services. Since the implementation of the service, 26,306 tests have been carried out to screen for cervical cancer, of which 1,194 tests showed some type of change.
“When any change is detected, we call the teams to the line of care and monitoring of women, either by repeating the cytopathological examination or referral to the Colon Reference Service, located in strategic municipalities of the SUS Health Care Network, in Tocantins”, highlighted the director of Lacen-TO, Jucimária Dantas Galvão.
The coordinator of the State Cervical and Breast Cancer Control Program/SES-TO, Fabiana Moura Mamede Alves, explains that in addition to diagnostic exams, SES-TO offers support to municipalities in organizing women’s screening for cancer prevention. , this support is provided through visits to municipalities, training and updates on the disease”.
Data
The estimate from the National Cancer Institute (Inca) is 17,010 new cases for each year of the 2023-2025 period, being the third most common among women, after only breast cancer and colon and rectal cancer. In Tocantins, according to data from the Ambulatory Information System (SIA), between 2022 and 2023, 186 new cases of malignant neoplasia of the cervix were diagnosed.
Tags: Central Public Health Laboratory Tocantins reference cervical cancer screening
