[Cervical smears unsuitable for exclusion of cervical carcinoma]

In women with contact bleeding or vaginal discharge, cervical smears are often made to exclude the possibility of cervical carcinoma. During the past ten years, several women sued pathologists for failure to diagnose cervical cancer because of false-negative results entailing a diagnostic delay of years. This, however, is unjustifiable: clinicians have to consider the aim of performing a test and always have to interpret the outcome within the clinical context. If the indication for testing is to exclude cervical cancer with enough certainty, a false-negative rate possibly as high as 45% makes the smear definitely unsuitable for this aim.