BMJ  2003;327:162 (19 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7407.162

Letter

Cervical cancer screening

Paragraph for This week in the BMJ was misleading

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

EDITOR—Coste et al evaluated different techniques in gynaecological cytology,1 but I could not find any comments in the paper about whether replacement of the conventional Pap smear by liquid based methods should be reconsidered, although this was highlighted in the accompanying paragraph for This week in the BMJ, "New cervical smear tests should not replace conventional ones." I therefore wonder on what basis the BMJ editors arrived at this needlessly provocative and unsubstantiated statement in the name of the authors?

I also wonder why the editors of the BMJ, which is not a journal dedicated to pathology or cytopathology, should have chosen to review and publish the study by Coste et al and to introduce it in this manner. Perhaps before publication, they should have consulted with the cytology programme in Scotland, which has evaluated these techniques and decided to implement them, and with the NHS . . . [Full text of this article]

Jonathan Weintraub, pathologist

Laboratoire Weintraub, 22 ch Beausoleil, CH-1206 Geneva, Switzerland labo@weintraub.ch


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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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