Women aged over 40 ‘can safely go 10 YEARS between cervical screenings’ with soon-to-be rolled out smear test that looks for HPV and cancer at the same time
- Government-funded study looked at 24,500 Brits attending routine screenings
- Women over 40 who tested negative for HPV did not need screened for decade
- And younger women could go longer than the current three years between tests
Middle-aged women can safely go ten years between cervical screening tests if they test negative for HPV, research suggests.
A Government-funded trial looked at data from 24,500 British women who had been tested for HPV testing alongside their routine smear test.
It found women over 40 who tested negative for HPV – a virus that causes almost all cervical cancer cases – did not need to be screened for another decade.
The study also found younger women with a negative HPV test could go longer than the current three years between appointments.
It comes as smear test attendance is known to be at an all-time low — just 71 per cent of those invited go for their smear, NHS figures show.
NHS England announced it is adding HPV testing onto the standard smear tests by 2020. They are currently not offered but will be rolled out starting in July this year.
Many middle-aged women are able to safely go ten years between cervical screening appointments (file image)
The 10-minute tests, considered embarrassing by many, take a sample of cells from a woman’s cervix – the connection between the vaginal canal and the womb.
These are then examined for signs of any abnormalities which may lead to cervical cancer in the future. If there are signs, preventative treatment may be given.
All women aged between 25 and 64 living in the UK are invited to have smear tests by their GP.
This happens every three years for women aged 25 to 49 and every five years for women aged 50 to 64.
Changes in cervical cells are often caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which can be transmitted during sex.
The new findings – from women in Manchester – will feed into the National Screening Committee’s recommendations to the Government.
The researchers added it would also be more cost-effective for the NHS to prolong the times between screen appointments, which women regularly skip.
They said: ‘The possibility of a small increase in risk of progression to invasive cancer between screening rounds and perhaps some increase in the proportion of women who fail to attend regularly must be weighed against the advantages for patients and reduction of NHS costs with longer screening intervals.’
The study results also suggest that immediate referral of all HPV positive women with mildly abnormal cytology results may be over-cautious.
They propose retesting at one year for high-risk groups and three years for lower risk patients.
Human papillomavirus (HPV), the culprit for most of the cancers, infects most people at some stage in their life and is harmless in the vast majority of cases.
HPV is spread by skin-to-skin contact and can also spread through the mouth, not only by penetrative sex.
For most women, an HPV infection which they clear naturally puts them at low risk of developing cancer.
‘Virtually all’ cervical cancers occur in women with a specific type of HPV infection which longer screening intervals would still pick up, the team of experts say.
Karis Betts, Cancer Research UK health information manager, told MailOnline: ‘Getting older isn’t a reason to turn down screening invitations, or to ignore symptoms.
‘Cervical screening aims to pick up abnormal cells before cancer has a chance to develop, so we’d encourage people to think about taking part when they receive their invitation, whatever their age.
‘Women between 25 and 49 should receive an invitation every three years and women between 49 and 64 every five years.’
‘It’s important that the screening programmes are up to date with the evidence, and any potential changes in intervals will be reviewed by the National Screening Committee.’
Scientists last month predicted cervical cancer could be wiped out within the next few decades in the UK because the HPV vaccine is proving so effective.
A major study looking at screening programmes involving 60million people in 14 countries found levels of the two strands of HPV that are mainly responsible for the cancer fell 83 per cent in girls aged 13 to 19 after five to eight years of vaccination.
They also fell 66 per cent in women aged 20 to 24, according to results published in The Lancet medical journal.