(Radio Iowa) – A state senator announced Monday she has uterine cancer and is undergoing surgery today (Tuesday). While there’s no known prevention for uterine cancer, a women’s health expert urges young Iowa women to get the H-P-V vaccine to greatly increase their odds of preventing a similar disease — cervical cancer. Dr. Alexa Lowry, an obstetrician gynecologist at Emplify Health by Gundersen, says the vaccine can be given as young as age nine and she notes, cervical cancer is highly treatable, depending on when it’s found.

“Like any cancer, it depends on what stage it’s at when it’s identified,” Lowry says. “So, of course, if it is caught early, the survival rates can be a lot higher and sometimes can be quoted in the 90s percents, versus if it’s caught much later or more progressed, then the survival rates can be a lot lower.” Lowry says two types of tests can be done in a doctor’s office or clinic that can spot this type of cancer, the H-P-V test or a pap test.

“It is very rare for young women to get cervical cancer,” Lowry says. “I think the peak age is around 50, but somewhere in the reproductive years to 50s is most common. It’s very rare for women in their 20s and younger.” State health officials say about 110 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed every year in Iowa, or about 14-thousand cases per year nationwide. Lowry says cervical cancer is considered a preventable cancer.

“Getting the HPV vaccination and maintaining your screening with pap smears or HPV testing through your wellness visits with your provider,” Lowry says, “those are the ways that we can prevent abnormalities of the cervix, catch them if they’re there, and then prevent cancer altogether.”

Emplify Healthy by Gundersen has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union. State Senator Catelin Drey of Sioux City says she’s been diagnosed with stage one uterine cancer. Drey was elected to the Iowa Senate last year in a special election held to fill the vacancy created when Senator Rocky De Witt died of pancreatic cancer.