Cervical cancer just got much deadlier—because scientists fixed a math error

Enlarge / Close up of cancer cells in the cervix, the portion of the uterus that is attached to the top of the vagina. (credit: Getty | American Cancer Society)

Cervical cancer is 77 percent more deadly for black women and 44 percent more deadly for white women than previously thought, researchers report today in the journal Cancer.

But the lethal boosts aren’t from more women actually dying than before—they’re from scientists correcting their own calculation error. In the past, their estimates didn’t account for women who had undergone hysterectomies—which almost always removes the cervix, and with it the risk of getting cervical cancer.

“We don’t include men in our calculation because they are not at risk for cervical cancer and by the same measure, we shouldn’t include women who don’t have a cervix,” Anne F. Rositch, the study's lead author and an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins told The New York Times.