Cervical cancer screening should be generalized in France from 2018. The news was announced on Monday January 23, 2017 in an issue of the Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin (BEH). While vaginal tumors affect about 3,000 women a year in France and lead to more than a thousand deaths, Pap smear screening can significantly reduce the frequency of cervical tumors. Cervical cancer is the 10th most common cancer in women in France. And it is one of the only ones for which the prognosis deteriorates whereas, detected early, it can be avoided! If vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) is not unanimous, smears can detect and treat precancerous lesions and cancers, especially at an early stage. Doctors therefore recommend that women aged 25 to 65 have Pap smears every 3 years. However, 40% of women in this age group do not do it regularly...
Organized screening has been tested in France for 3 years in 13 departments. On the model used for breast cancer, the aim was as follows:to determine the interest of inviting women by post to take a detection smear. About 1 million women received the document because they had not had the exam within 3 years. Subsequently, a follow-up letter was sent to 455,500 of them. Summary of the experience? Rather effective! The doctors would indeed have noted 62% of smears, 11% of which were linked to the invitation letter. The experience should therefore be repeated in 2018, this time across the country.
We can never say it enough:prevention is essential!
