Cervical Cancer Case Study
Since the introduction of cervical screening in the 1980s, rates of cervical cancer have almost halved. This compares to 2,369 women diagnosed in 2008. Over the last 10 years there has been a 77% increase in the incidence rate for women age 25-29, with 281 cases in 2008 For women aged 30-34 the rate increased by 29%, with 309 cases in 2008. In women aged 20-24 the incidence rate has remained fairly stable, with 39 cases in 2008.
Coverage of screening has shown a downward trend in younger women since the mid 1990’s. By 2008, the coverage rate for women aged 25-29 had fallen from a level of 67% in 1995 to 59%. This compares with a rate of 69% in women aged 25-49 years (those called for screening every 3-3.5 years) and 80% in women aged 50-64 years (those called for screening every 5 years), in 2008 …show more content…
Around 2,900 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the UK every year.
The national cervical cancer screening programme saves thousands of lives every year, but around 960 women die from the disease each year. Since 2008, girls aged 12 and 13 have been offered a vaccination against a virus that causes cervical cancer, called human papillomavirus (HPV). More recently, a catch-up programme has been introduced for girls aged 13 to 18 as well. This vaccine can prevent over 70% of cervical cancers. In the UK Scientists estimate that cervical screening saves around 5000 lives each year.
Cervical screening can prevent at least:
• 75% of cervical cancers in women in their 50s and 60s,
• 60% of cervical cancers in women in their
40s,
• 45% of cervical cancers in women in their 30s.
Cervical screening is very effective but, like any screening test, it isn’t perfect. In cervical screening, very few tests will find abnormal changes that aren’t really there. But one in five tests will miss something. Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether changes in the cervix will return to normal or progress to cancer. This means that some women will be treated unnecessarily, for changes that would not have caused any harm if they had been left alone.
It is hard to say exactly how often women may be ‘over treated’ in this way. But the benefits of preventing cervical cancers are so great that they considerably outweigh the harms of some unnecessary treatment in women from their early to mid-twenties to mid-sixties.
In 2009 a sharp increase in screening coverage of around 3% occurred in women under the age of 35. In 2010 coverage increased in this age group again by around 1.5%. These increases are thought to be a reaction to the high profile death from cervical cancer of the celebrity Jade Goody at the age of 27. It remains to be seen whether this level of coverage will be sustained in women of this age group.
In July 2009, Sasieni et al published a paper in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) that showed that while screening older women leads to a substantial reduction in cervical cancer, screening in women aged 20-24 has little or no impact on rates of invasive cervical cancer at ages 25-29. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/spotcancerearly/screening/cervicalcancerscreening/ http://www.ncin.org.uk/publications/data_briefings/cervical_incidence_and_screening
References.
Coverage of screening has shown a downward trend in younger women since the mid 1990’s. By 2008, the coverage rate for women aged 25-29 had fallen from a level of 67% in 1995 to 59%. This compares with a rate of 69% in women aged 25-49 years (those called for screening every 3-3.5 years) and 80% in women aged 50-64 years (those called for screening every 5 years), in 2008 …show more content…
Around 2,900 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the UK every year.
The national cervical cancer screening programme saves thousands of lives every year, but around 960 women die from the disease each year. Since 2008, girls aged 12 and 13 have been offered a vaccination against a virus that causes cervical cancer, called human papillomavirus (HPV). More recently, a catch-up programme has been introduced for girls aged 13 to 18 as well. This vaccine can prevent over 70% of cervical cancers. In the UK Scientists estimate that cervical screening saves around 5000 lives each year.
Cervical screening can prevent at least:
• 75% of cervical cancers in women in their 50s and 60s,
• 60% of cervical cancers in women in their
40s,
• 45% of cervical cancers in women in their 30s.
Cervical screening is very effective but, like any screening test, it isn’t perfect. In cervical screening, very few tests will find abnormal changes that aren’t really there. But one in five tests will miss something. Sometimes it is difficult to tell whether changes in the cervix will return to normal or progress to cancer. This means that some women will be treated unnecessarily, for changes that would not have caused any harm if they had been left alone.
It is hard to say exactly how often women may be ‘over treated’ in this way. But the benefits of preventing cervical cancers are so great that they considerably outweigh the harms of some unnecessary treatment in women from their early to mid-twenties to mid-sixties.
In 2009 a sharp increase in screening coverage of around 3% occurred in women under the age of 35. In 2010 coverage increased in this age group again by around 1.5%. These increases are thought to be a reaction to the high profile death from cervical cancer of the celebrity Jade Goody at the age of 27. It remains to be seen whether this level of coverage will be sustained in women of this age group.
In July 2009, Sasieni et al published a paper in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) that showed that while screening older women leads to a substantial reduction in cervical cancer, screening in women aged 20-24 has little or no impact on rates of invasive cervical cancer at ages 25-29. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/cancer-info/spotcancerearly/screening/cervicalcancerscreening/ http://www.ncin.org.uk/publications/data_briefings/cervical_incidence_and_screening
References.