Description
The cervical screening programme has developed over the
past 30 years. There are now over 5 million smears performed
annually. The main problems with the smear programme are in
coverage of high risk groups, high false positive and negative
rates and the inability of smears to identify the minority
of women who will develop progressive disease. Testing for
high risk HPV subtypes may help in primary screening, as an
adjuvant to cytology or as a prognostic indicator for disease
progression.
