Screening for cervical cancer

Abstract

World-wide, there are estimated to be almost half a million new cases and a quarter of a million deaths from cervical cancer each year, accounting for about 10% of all female cancers (Parkin, 2001) and making cervix cancer the second commonest cancer among women, being exceeded only by breast cancer (Table 1). The cumulative incidence rate up to age 74 ranges from over 5% in parts of Latin America to around 0.5% in parts of the Middle East and in Finland. In most European countries it is around 1% (WHO, 1997).