During Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, Chemtai Mungo, MD, MPH, FACOG, a member of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, was interviewed by Cancer Nursing Today, describing the role nurses can play in prevention and treatment.
“Nurses interface with patients—women and men—throughout our health system,” she said in the interview. “If we can continue to pass on that message of prevention, specifically taking up the [human papillomavirus] vaccine… and screening… we can get to a world where no woman dies from cervical cancer or even gets cervical cancer.”
Mungo was recognized as a NextGen Star at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023 for her research on the feasibility of topical self-administered therapies to improve cervical precancer treatment outcomes among women living with HIV in low-and middle-income countries. She explained that Cervical Cancer Awareness Month is a great opportunity to spread the word that cervical cancer is “completely preventable.”
“Cervical cancer—unlike other gynecological cancers—is a cancer that we understand very, very well,” she said.
Mungo was also featured in a blog by the American Association for Cancer Research where she described the stark disparities between the U.S. and LMICs when battling cervical cancer.
The low prevalence of obstetrician/gynecologists in Kenya can make it difficult to secure an appointment, and patients sometimes have to travel significant distances to see a specialist. Further, infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can weaken women’s immune systems, making it harder to fight off the HPV infection that causes most cases of cervical cancer.
Mungo hypothesizes that a cheaper, more accessible treatment method may help reach women with high-risk cervical lesions or HPV infections that won’t go away on their own. She and her colleagues are currently testing the feasibility of a self-administered intravaginal chemotherapy treatment for such patients.