Low cost methods for secondary prevention of cervical cancer in developing countries

Cervical cancer is both a preventable and a curable disease- preventable because the pre-invasive stage can be detected by screening and curable because the very early stage can be cured. It is the commonest genital cancer among females in Nigeria. The incidence and mortality from this disease in developing countries is very high. This is due to the unavailability of organised screening programmes. To address this problem, effective and practical alternatives to cytology are being investigated in many studies.

To examine the strengths and limitations of new methods currently undergoing evaluation for secondary prevention of cervical cancer in developing countries.

We conducted a computerised literature search for published articles. Mesh phrases used for the search were cervical cancer screening, cervical cancer screening in developing countries, cervical cancer screening- new techniques. Hand searches of journals and the proceedings of major conferences were also done.

The visual tests for screening for cervical cancer was found to be highly sensitive and can be performed by not only physician but also other trained health care providers. The "single visit approach" to prevention of cervical cancer also referred to as "see and treat" has been tried in some countries in Asia and Africa and found to be effective and acceptable to women and their partners.

Several studies conducted in many developing countries have shown that low cost methods for cervical cancer prevention do have a place in reducing the incidence of this deadly disease.