A national screening programme for cervical cancer is expected to be rolled out later this year following the announcement that a preferred bidder has been selected to carry out laboratory testing.
The National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) said it had selected US-based Quest Diagnostics as the “preferred service provider” to analyse smear tests that provide vital early warning signs of cervical cancer.
Over 70 women die in Ireland each year from cervical cancer, which is preventable if the early signs are caught and treated. The NCSS said it believed mortality rates may be cut by up to 80 per cent once the screening programme is in place.
The NCSS said today’s announcement was “an important milestone” which would enable it to launch the first “quality-assured, population-based” national cervical screening programme in the coming months.
Screening will be free to all women in Ireland aged between 25 and 60 years of age. Women aged between 25 and 44 will be called for testing every three years, while those in the 45-60 age group will be screened every five years.
Delays and inconsistency in smear testing have been a serious problem in Ireland in recent years.
In late 2006, it emerged that women were waiting six months for the results of the routine smear tests from Cork University Hospital (CUH). The backlog at that time stood at 10,938 smears.
They were also waiting five months for the results of smears from St Luke's Hospital, Dublin; three months for results from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; and nearly three months for results from Galway's University College Hospital.
Quest Diagnostics was one of the companies to which tests were sent to help clear that backlog.
From January 2001 to the end December 2006, about 57,000 women attended for screening in a pilot cervical screening programme in the mid-west.
Normally, women must pay a doctor or family planning clinic to carry out smear tests. At least one clinic in Dublin was recently offering to expedite smear test results by sending them to a company in London, for an additional fee of €59.
NCSS chief executive Tony O’Brien said today he is satisfied that Quest Diagnostics can provide the quality and consistency needed in a smear test screening service.
This includes a commitment to screen each slide twice by two separate cytologists, the laboratory technicians who examine the smear tests. The preferred bidder for the screening programme must also demonstrate the capacity to screen a minimum of 25,000 smear samples per year at each proposed laboratory, the NCSS said.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said last year the national cervical screening programme would include initiatives to encourage women in disadvantaged groups to take up the free screening.
She also pledged to examine the potential role of vaccination in preventing cervical cancer. Two vaccines administered to young women before they become sexually active have been shown to prevent infection with the strains of a virus known to be linked to the development of cervical cancer.