Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Papers

Cross sectional study of conventional cervical smear, monolayer cytology, and human papillomavirus DNA testing for cervical cancer screening

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7392.733 (Published 05 April 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:733

Rapid Response:

Liquid based cytology: The current evidence is insufficient!

Anybody interested in a study on liquid based cytology independent of
manufacturers and providers of the test should definitely look up the
report of the Australian Medical Services Advisory Committee (AMSAC), just
published in March 2003. It is a 106 page study of the current evidence.

It comes to the conclusion that the lack of high quality evidence on the
performance of liquid based cytology does not permit evaluation of
whether it is equal or superior in effectiveness to conventional Pap
smears. It also concludes that there is no evidence to suggest that liquid
based cytology would be cost effective at the proposed price. This report
seems to support the conclusions drawn by Coste et al in the current
study.

The report can be downloaded at: http://www.msac.gov.au.

Competing interests:  
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

16 April 2003
Volker Schneider
Pathologist
Pathology Laboratory, Burgunderstr. 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany