A woman who was diagnosed with cancer despite feeling healthy has warned others never to ignore signs their body is telling them something is wrong. Kat Steverson, 35 and from Florida, is currently undergoing treatment, which will continue for the next two years, after being diagnosed with cervical cancer. She felt completely healthy when she was diagnosed with stage 3B cervical cancer.
Stage 3B refers to when the cancer has spread from the cervix into the structures around it, or into the lymph nodes in the pelvis or abdomen, according to Cancer Research UK. For Steverson, a major red flag was spotting and bleeding in between her usual menstrual cycle—but she told Newsweek she was "not aware spotting was a potential symptom." "Even when I Googled it, cancer didn't come up," she said. Steverson explained she got her diagnosis when she went to get the spotting checked out by a doctor, but never suspected it could be cancer.
"I started to have irregular bleeding in between my cycles for about three months so I went in to get it checked out. I thought I was going into early menopause like my mom did at my age," she said. Steverson had a pap smear just eight months earlier which had come back clear, but a new investigation following her spotting discovered a 10 centimeter tumor.
Pap smears are a screening tool for cervical cancer which can detect abnormal cells in the cervix before they become cancerous, and to check for HPV—one of the leading causes of cervical cancer. In the U.S., pap smears are recommended for women between the ages of 21 and 30 at least once every three years, and every five years between the ages of 30 and 65, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Despite her pap having showed up clear, Steverson is now calling for people to attend every appointment to give themselves the best opportunity of catching disease early.
She told Newsweek that attending pap smear appointments is "so important." "Don't miss them," she urged. "They can catch these things early so you can get proper treatment quickly." In Steverson's case, she is now in the midst of a long treatment plan: six chemotherapy infusions, 25 external radiation treatments, and brachytherapy. She will also attend immunotherapy appointments every 21 days for the next two years.
Cervical cancer was once one of the most common causes of cancer deaths for American women, according to the American Cancer Society. However, incidence rates are currently more than half of what they were in the 1970s largely due to the success of screening and, more recently, the HPV vaccination. The American Cancer Society estimates that around 13,490 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2026.
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