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Friday, August 03, 2007Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France and their colleagues from Tamil Nadu in India used the technique to screen 49,311 women in Dindigul district, India, from 2000 to 2003. When pre-cancerous lesions were found, health care workers gave immediate treatment to destroy the abnormal cervical tissue. Another 30,958 women received standard care. They were told to watch for signs and symptoms of cervical cancer and encouraged to visit health care facilities where screening was available. These women were tracked from 2000 to 2006. There were 167 cases and 83 cervical cancer deaths in the women who received the screening, compared with 158 cases and 92 deaths in those who didn't. That represents 25 percent less cervical cancer and a 35 percent lower death rate among those screened. In the US, we screen with pap smears and do the visual inspection using vinegar and a magnifying lens to direct areas to be biopsied, but that's expensive. It looks like the visual inspection method is already something that's being done in more impoverished areas of the world. The study confirms that it's an effective method for screening in areas where the rates of cervical cancer and dysplasia are high. Would it be effective here? Maybe not. There may be too many false positives to justify using it in the developed world, where cervical cancer rates are much lower. posted by Sydney on 8/03/2007 08:52:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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