Cervical Cancer Risk Continues for Women over 50
06 May 2009 - Cervical cancer screening for over 50-year-olds continues to find abnormalities even if they have clear results in their 40s, a new study published in the British Journal of Cancer has revealed.
The results are from a cohort study of 2 million women aged between 20 and 64. Within this, the authors studied a sub-group of 57,000 women, 80 per cent of whom had at least two negative screening tests in their 40s and a further test over age 50 between 1988 and 2003.
This study will inform the discussion about whether or not to continue screening of women over the age of 50 with a prior history of negative screening tests. It shows that the NHS Cervical Cancer Screening is continuing to benefit older women. Nearly two thirds of serious pre-cancerous abnormalities (classified as CIN 3) currently detected in women over 50 would remain undetected without the provision of screening in this group.
