Cervical Cancer Screening

“The Durex Global Lifestyle Health Survey shows that in 2007, the average number of sexual partners for women in mainland China was 2.3, much lower than the global average of 7.3, but the incidence of cervical cancer in China (14.6 per 100,000) is the second highest in the world! In China, 130,000 women are found to have cervical cancer each year, and more lamentably, about 30,000 women die from cervical cancer. In recent years, the incidence of cervical cancer tends to be younger, and the number of female patients of childbearing age is gradually increasing. The screening data of Beijing Friendship Hospital Cervical Disease Treatment Center shows that the youngest cervical precancerous lesion is 23 years old, and the age distribution of cervical cancer patients is 34-48 years old, of which 33.3% are under 40 years old. The incidence rate of cervical cancer in Shanghai has been decreasing by about 10% per year on average in recent years due to the gradual popularization of screening, but the incidence age is gradually shifting to younger women, and the youngest cervical cancer patient is only 16 years old. The development of cervical cancer is a very slow process. Generally, it takes about 5 to 10 years for a precancerous cervical lesion to develop into cervical cancer, and any effective cervical cancer screening during this period allows doctors to detect tiny, very early changes in cervical cells, which stops the deadly cancer before it can actually occur. Instead, it will gradually progress toward cancer. Therefore, cervical cancer is a malignant disease that can be thoroughly prevented, detected early and treated early. However, survey figures show that the number of women over 25 years old in China who have never done cervical cancer prevention survey is actually more than 70%. This is one of the reasons why the mortality rate of cervical cancer in China is so high. All women over 18 years old who have ever had sex should have a cervical cancer screening once a year, even if you have now stopped having sex or are no longer menstruating. In the last 50 years, the Pap smear technique and the corresponding Pap classification have been used in cervical cancer screening, which has led to a significant decrease in both the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. However, due to the high false-positive and false-negative rates of this technique, which means that many women fail to detect lesions in a timely manner despite this cervical cancer prevention test. It was not until the introduction of a new cervical cancer prevention cytology technique, liquid-based cytology, that the problem was fundamentally solved. This new technique fundamentally overcomes the shortcomings of Pap smear, which is prone to cell loss or blood mucus contamination, and greatly improves the accuracy of diagnosis. In the United States, the Pap smear method has been abolished, and more than 70% of women use TCT technology for cervical cancer screening every year; in the United Kingdom, TCT technology has been used for cervical cancer screening for women at all screening sites. Happily, this technology has also been introduced in China for cervical cancer screening for women. Our hospital is one of the first hospitals to apply this technology and has detected many cases of precancerous lesions, in situ cancer and early invasive cancer in a timely manner in clinical practice. Due to timely detection, all of them have achieved good treatment results.