Effective cervical cytology screening programmes in middle-income countries: the Chilean experience

To demonstrate that an effective cervical cancer screening programme based on the Papanicolaou (Pap) smear can be organized in a middle-income country, such as Chile.

The cervical cytology screening programme in Chile is evaluated by comparing process measures and cervical cancer mortality before and after its reorganization in 1987.

Two decades of opportunistic annual screening for cervical cancer from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s did not reduce cervical cancer mortality in Chile. In 1987, a public health oriented program was launched, based on screening women aged 25-64 every 3 years, rather than the annual screening of low risk women attending family planning clinics that gathered mainly women less than 25 years of age. The reoriented program emphasized the optimization of existing resources, the timeliness of diagnosis and treatment, reliability of the Pap smear and low cost screening promotion strategies at the community level. More than 80% of women with abnormal Pap smears received prompt medical attention and 100% of the public laboratories were subject to external quality control. According to biannual national surveys, coverage by Pap smear screening in the target group rose from 40% in 1990 to 66% in 1996. The age adjusted cervical cancer mortality rate decreased from 12.8 in 1980 to 6.8 per 100,000 women in 2001.

Improved organization of the national cervical cancer screening programme in Chile and more efficient use of existing resources resulted in a decrease of cervical cancer mortality.