Women in England will now be screened for cervical cancer every five years, instead of every three, health leaders have announced today.
The new protocol will be introduced from July and applies to women aged 25 to 49 as a low risk of the disease, which could be up to seven million people.
This is after recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee and is already used for older women, 50 to 64 years in England.
Modern cervical screening tests include checking for an infection called Human Papillomavirus (HPV), the precursor of approximately 99 percent of cervical cancers.
If a test is negative, women will now not be tested for five years.
However, those who test positive on HPV will continue to be invited to frequent checks to check cell changes.
According to the NHS, studies have shown that if a woman tests a negative test on HPV, she is very unlikely that she will develop cervical cancer in the following decade.
Scientists from King’s College London said that the new five -year approach is as effective as the traditional screening cycle and identifies the same number of cancers despite less frequent tests.
The move to intervals of 5 years brings England in accordance with Scotland and Wales, who introduced this change after the recommendation of the UK National Screening Committee (UNKSC)
NHS cervical screening data, which will go back to 2011, show that the recording that year was highest (75.7 percent) but has fallen over time
Campaigners have praised the step for making agreements, which can sometimes be uncomfortable, ‘easier to manage’.
“Research last year showed that many women can find it an uncomfortable experience, and sometimes hard to plan around their busy life,” said Louise Ansari, Chief Executive of Healthwatch England.
“Reducing the number of times they have to attend, in addition to sensitive and empathic approaches by health workers, will make these important agreements easier to manage.”
During a cervical screening exam, a health care professional takes a cotton swab of cells from the cervix to look for HPV.
If the virus, which is transferred through sex, is detected, further laboratory tests are performed to check whether the cells seem abnormal – and possibly cancer -like – under the microscope.
If abnormal cells are found, women are recalled for a procedure called a colposcopy, whereby the cervix is further investigated.
Those who have a positive HPV test, but no abnormal cells will be followed every year.
HPV is usually harmless. But in some cases a handful of the 150 strains can penetrate the genital channel where it ensures that cells are mutated and become cancer.
Jade Goody, the former Big Brother -participant, died tragically in 2009 at the age of 27 -cervical cancer
Girls have been vaccinated against HPV and boys of the same age since 2019 since 2008.
Every year there are around 3,300 new cases of cervical cancer and 850 deaths – in the UK.
Perhaps the most controversial patient who falls victim to the disease, reality TV star Jade Goody, who died in 2009, 27 years old, shortly after diagnosis.
The tragic death of the star led to a temporary increase in women in attending smears, although the recording of the test has decreased in recent years.
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