Affordable Care Act, early treatment linked

Study: More cervical cancers detected

The Affordable Care Act may have helped more women get early treatment for cervical cancer, according to a preliminary new study.

The fraction of young women whose cervical cancers were found and treated early — when women have a better chance of survival — increased after 2010, when the ACA expanded insurance coverage to young people by allowing them to remain on their parents’ health plans.

Before the 2010 insurance expansion, 71% of cervical cancers in women 21 to 25 were found early, at stage 1 or 2, according to the study, published Tuesday in JAMA. That percentage rose to 79% after the expansion.

More women also were eligible for less aggressive treatments after the insurance change took effect, the study said.

The percentage of women in this age group who were eligible for less aggressive treatments also increased, rising from 26% of cervical cancer patients before the coverage change to 39% after, according to the study.

When cervical cancer is caught early, doctors can treat it with relatively small surgeries that leave the uterus intact, so that women can still have children, said Xueson Han, director of surveillance at the American Cancer Society, which led the study.

“Cervical cancer is a young woman’s disease,” said Kevin Ault, a professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center. “Finding this cancer earlier will give women more choices of treatment.”

A study like this can’t prove cause and effect. There’s no way to definitively prove that it was the ACA that led to women getting earlier care for cancer. But researchers found evidence that supports the notion that the ACA should get credit: There was no significant rise in the percentage of cervical cancers found early among women 26 to 34, who weren’t eligible for the 2010 insurance expansion.

“Finding this cancer earlier will give women more choices of treatment.” Kevin Ault, University of Kansas Medical Center