Experts make plea over cervical cancer screening
HEALTH experts have called for NHS screening for cervical cancer to be extended to women over 64 after research found one in five new cases is diagnosed in this age group.
About 3,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year and it is the most common cancer in women under the age of 35.
But researchers at Keele University said that on average, 20 per cent of the 3,121 new cases diagnosed each year were in women aged 65 and over, the age at which the screening programme, commonly known as smear testing, currently ends.
Women over this age also accounted for half of deaths from cer vical cancer.
A separate report by the charity Jo’s Cer vical Cancer Trust also found a lack of knowledge about the cause of the disease and who can be affected seems to be contributing to women aged 50 to 64 not attending screening.
Almost all cases of cervical cancer are caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), but three in five women in this age group did not know this and many failed to see historic sexual activity as a threat, with the virus laying dormant and developing into cervical cancer later in life.
Screening is the most effective way of preventing cervical cancer and is offered to women aged from 25 to 64 on the NHS, yet figures show that last year there was a signifi- cant drop as women’s age increased. In England, numbers fell from 82 per cent of 50 to 54-year-olds to 75 per cent of 55 to 59-year-olds and 73 per cent of 60 to 64 year-olds.
There is concern that if attendance for cervical screening continues to decline among older women, more will face a later stage diagnosis of cervical cancer and potentially lose their lives.
The charity wants to see other ways to increase uptake and is calling for more research into a self-administered urine test for HPV, which can be carried out at home.
It found more than half of those who had delayed a cervical screening test said they would prefer to carry out their own test to see if they had HPV.
Reality TV contestant Jade Goody’s battle with cer vical cancer drew significant attention to the disease and there was a spike in women going for tests following her death in 2009.