Smear test that women only need once a decade

New ultra-sensitive HPV check could mean less frequent visits for over-40s

WOMEN should only have to visit their doctor every decade for smear tests, a study has suggested.

A new cervical screening procedure is so sensitive that those over 40 may only need it every decade.

Currently women are asked for a smear test every three years if they are 25 to 49, and every five years between 50 and 64.

In an NHS-funded study, to be considered by the National Screening Committee, researchers followed almost 25,000 women for more than a decade. They found the danger of cervical cancer and ‘pre-cancer’ was extremely low in those given the new HPv test, which detects a risk earlier than conventional checks. Only one in 100 women in their twenties who tested negative for HPv reached the pre- cancer stage in the next decade.

Women over 40 are far less likely to get HPv – the virus which can lead to cervical cancer and is picked up during sex. Only around one in 1,000 women of this age went on to get pre-cancer, leading the authors to conclude that ten years between tests could be reasonable for this age group. They say it could perhaps also be considered for younger women.

Professor Julian Peto, the leading cancer researcher from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who led the report published in the journal Health Technology Assessment, said: ‘These results show the risk of pre- cancer or cancer is ten times less in women over the age of 40 than those in their twenties, so a ten- year wait between appointments may be appropriate for older women.’

Currently women are invited for cervical cancer screening 12 times in their life. Uptake is at an alltime low, with five million women now overdue. Some experts believe repeated ‘all-clear’ results can put them off going back and that less frequent appointments may be less inconvenient for women and cheaper for the NHS. The HPv test will be rolled out in Britain by the end of the year. Instead of detecting abnormal cervix cells, it picks up the HPv virus that can cause those abnormalities – meaning it picks up cancer risk earlier.

The British study of the test followed 24,510 women in Manchester, of whom 482 got pre- cancer and 23 were diagnosed with cervical cancer after screening.

Among women who tested negative for the HPv virus, just 1.1 per cent of those aged 20 to 24 went on to get cancer or pre- cancer. Women over 40 were ten times less likely to get cancer or pre-cancer, with a rate of 0.11 per cent.