Results of clinically downstaging cervical cancer in a cytological screening programme

The study was aimed at clinically downstaging cancer of the cervix during a cytological Screening Programme to find out whether such a strategy may help in yielding a large number of early cases of cancer. A cohort of 6,178 women with different cervical lesions were cytologically examined from April 1971 at Queen Mary's Hospital, Lucknow, India. The 8,718 asymptomatic women with healthy cervices were taken as controls. The incidence of cervical dysplasia and malignancy in the study group was found to be 11.2% and 1.9%, which was statistically highly significant compared to control values of 3.3% and 0.02%, respectively. Dysplastic smears were seen maximally in women whose cervix bled to the touch, and the rate of cervical cancer was high in women with suspicious cervix. Dysplastic smears were seen frequently in all age and parity groups, but malignancy was common in women of high age (over 30 years) and high parity (two and above). The incidence of three sexually transmitted diseases, namely Trichomonas vaginalis, Herpes simplex, and condyloma revealed highly significant values, especially in women whose cervix bled to the touch. The study highlights the strategy of clinically downstaging cervical cancer, which is very useful in detecting a large number of dysplasia and frank malignancy cases and also the presence of any associated sexually transmitted pathogens whose treatment would aid in restricting the rising incidence of the dreaded disease in this country.