Organizovani skrining raka grlića materice u Domu zdravlja "Novi Sad"

Abstract

Cervical cancer can be prevented and cured by early detection. Yet, it is the fourth most common type of cancer among women worldwide. According to data from the Cancer Registry of the Institute of Public Health of Serbia "Dr. Milan Jovanović Batut," 1044 newly diagnosed cases were registered among women and 438 women died from this malignant localization in 2019. Human papillomavirus infection (hereinafter referred to as: HPV) is the most important risk factor for the development of cervical cancer. Thanks to the natural course of HPV infection and the biological behaviour of premalignant changes in the cervix, cervical cancer prevention can be carried out at the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention levels. Secondary prevention involves screening (early detection of asymptomatic forms of the disease) and represents an organized mass invitation of the target population of women (aged between 25 and 64 years) for testing and interpretation of test results, followed by quality assurance control and reporting. Organized screening is done at threeyear intervals in the healthy population and allows for detecting not only malignant disease but also precancerous changes whose removal prevents the occurrence of malignant diseases. The methodology used in this paper included the monitoring of screening results performed at the "Novi Sad" Health Centre in the period from 2013 to 2022. The documentation of the institution's regular reporting on screening results, which contains depersonalized aggregated data, was used as a data source. In the statistical data analysis, descriptive statistics was used and the data have been presented in tabular form. The Women's Health Care Service with its Cytology laboratory has been the implementer of the organized cervical cancer screening program at the "Novi Sad" Health Centre since 2013 (covering a population of 110,067 women aged 25 to 64 for the territory of the municipality of Novi Sad and the municipality of Sremski Karlovci). The gynaecology service of the "Novi Sad" Health Centre was highly commended by the Cervical Cancer Screening Office for the results achieved in terms of the highest coverage of the target population and the largest number of Pap smear tests performed. In the period from March 2013 to July 2022, a total of 210,410 swabs, of which 9,469 (4.5%) showed atypia, were taken for screening purposes at the "Novi Sad" Health Centre. The aim of the paper was to show the organization of the "Novi Sad" Health Centre as well as the results achieved in organized cervical cancer screening, as a secondary prevention measure that can contribute to the reduction in cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates among women.