CERVICAL-CANCER SCREENING IN ISERE - RESULTS OF THE FIRST ROUND

The department of Isere, which is involved since 1990 in a breast canc er screening campaign concerning women aged 50 to 63, has managed to a ssociate a cervical and colorectal cancers screening program. The targ et sample size is 98,000 individuals. Women are asked to refer their g eneral practitioner or gynaecologist for cervico-vaginal smears. Each woman is invited at a screening interval of 30 months. The results of the first invitation (November 1990-December 1992) are reported. Thus 29,570 women did referred, so that the screening uptake is 30% and 20, 083 women (68%) had Pap smears inside the screening program. 1.1% of t he smears were unsatisfactory and 1.2% of the tests showed abnormaliti es. Ninety-six percent of the women who had been referred for further examinations have been followed up. Thirty-eight women (representing 1 7% of smears with abnormalities) had surgery (conisation, hysterectomy , Wertheim). Among them, 5 cases of invasive cervical carcinoma and 25 in situ carcinoma were detected The detected cancer prevalence per 1, 000 women screened is 1.5 parts per thousand. An organised screening p rogram for cervical cancer in association with breast cancer screening , seems to be an effective way of increasing smears realisation in wom en aged 50 to 69, and of involving general practitioners in cervical c ancer screening.