Cervical cancer is a tumour of the cervix.
It is a common cancer in women and can be prevented by detecting precancerous cells in a cervical smear. The cervix is the part of the womb that projects into the vagina. It measures less than one inch across and about one and a half inches in length. It is a block of a special type of muscle covered by a thin layer of surface cells. After about 10 years, the precancerous cells turn into true cancer cells, which spread into the muscle of the cervix and surrounding tissue and then to other parts of the body.