Cervical Cancer screening changes

Abstract

Welcome to Public Health Moment from the University of Minnesota. It’s cervical cancer awareness month and there’s news to report. Two sets of draft guidelines now recommend that women be screened only once every three years instead of annually. The U.S. Preventive Services task force now and previously recommended screening every three years. What’s changed is that the other major group that writes guidelines, a coalition that includes the American Cancer Society, is now in agreement. Shalini , an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, worked on both sets of draft guidelines. <Shalini: “What should be noted about these recommendations are that they recommend screening beginning at age 21, that it be conducted every three years if you are using cytology – consistent with the task force recommendations – and that screening can end at age 65 [if screenings are normal and there’s been no increase in risk.”>Kulasingam said that screening has reduced the incidence and mortality for cervical cancer, but added that both groups recommended against annual screening. <Shalini: “For a long time in this country – because of discrepancies between these different sets of recommendations – clinicians have continued to screen women every year. But now with this set of recommendations, with both large groups coming out and recommending that women be screen every three years, hopefully we will see a decrease in annual screening because this really represents over-screening in this group – especially in younger women.”> Final guidelines are expected to be released mid year. For Public Health Moment, I’m Mark Engebretson.