This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Five year cervical screening can be safe
Extending the cervical cancer screening interval beyond five years for women aged 40 and older who test negative for human papilloma virus (HPV) is safe, say researchers from the Netherlands in The BMJ.
Trials have shown that screening for HPV leads to earlier detection of abnormal cells than cytology (smear) testing - and offers better protection against cervical cancer.
Women aged between 25 and 49 in the UK are currently invited for screening every three years, and women up to the age of 64 are invited every five years.
Evidence on the safety of screening beyond five years is limited, and therefore many health professionals remain wary. However, in the Netherlands, screening intervals for HPV negative women aged at least 40 years will be increased in 2017 from five to 10 years.
Based on data from findings of a 14 year follow-up on 43,000 women aged between 29-61 years, the researchers suggest that HPV negative women aged at least 40 have a very low risk of CIN3+ (the highest grade of abnormal cells) in the long term, ‘indicating that extension of the current screening
interval in the Netherlands is justifiable’.
The authors stress that the long term risk of CIN3+ for HPV positive women is too high to support extending screening beyond five years.
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