Study Questions Pap Smears For Under-25s
July 29, 2009- England and Australia- Pap smears in the under-25s has prompted calls from some experts for a review of Australia's cervical cancer screening program.
But other experts say it is unwise to change the system yet and all urge women to keep being screened.
The UK study, reported online today in the British Medical Journal, shows cervical cytology screening in women aged between 20 and 24 has little or no impact on rates of invasive cervical cancer up to age 30.
The study analysed data from 4,012 women with cervical cancer and nearly 8,000 without.
The researchers found that smears were far less effective at preventing cancer in 20- to 24-year-olds than in older women, who saw screening lead to substantial drops in death and incidence of between 60 percent to 80 percent.
Cancer epidemiology professor Peter Sasieni from Queen Mary University of London says, "These data should help policy-makers balance the impact of screening on cancer rates against its harms, such as overtreatment of lesions with little invasive potential."
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