BMJ  2003;327:161 (19 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7407.161-a

Letter

Cervical cancer screening

Liquid based cytology may be preferred option for UK screening programme

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Coste et al studied conventional cervical smear testing, monolayer cytology, and human papillomavirus DNA testing for cervical screening, their results being published as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) was deciding whether liquid based cytology should be used in the United Kingdom.1 Thus the paper must be interpreted in relation to others with assessment of its relevance to the NHS cervical screening programme.

Coste et al's study is small by cervical screening standards.2 3 Furthermore, it is a split sample study with the traditional smear performed in the usual manner and the monolayer smear performed on residual cells left on the spatula. How the smears were taken is not clear from the paper or the referred paper.4 Data show that this design is faulty, with fewer endocervical cells left for analysis of the liquid based cytology,5 as was also found by Coste et al. Might this design fault . . . [Full text of this article]

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Thomas Ind, consultant gynaecological oncologist

Royal Marsden Hospital, London SW3 6JJ ind@tomind.freeserve.co.uk


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Relevant Article

Cross sectional study of conventional cervical smear, monolayer cytology, and human papillomavirus DNA testing for cervical cancer screening
Joël Coste, Béatrix Cochand-Priollet, Patricia de Cremoux, Catherine Le Galès, Isabelle Cartier, Vincent Molinié, Sylvain Labbé, Marie-Cécile Vacher-Lavenu, and Philippe Vielh
BMJ 2003 326: 733. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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