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Aug 5, 2007 5:04 pm US/Eastern
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Cheap Method Helps Detect Cervical Cancer
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LONDON (CBS4) ―
250,000 women are killed every year by cervical cancer, experts said. Nearly 80 percent are in the developing world. A cheap method to detect cervical cancer using vinegar, cotton gauze and a bright light could save millions of women in the developing world, experts reported Friday.
The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, found a simple visual screening test to look for the early signs of cervical cancer reduced the numbers of cases by 25%.
The visual screening test is done by a nurse or trained health care worker who washes a woman's cervix with vinegar and gauze using a speculum to hold it open. After one minute, any pre-cancerous lesions turn very white and can be seen with the naked eye under a halogen lamp.
Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France and their colleagues from India used the technique to screen 49,311 women in India for 3 years. When cancer was found, health care workers gave immediate treatment to destroy the abnormal cervical tissue.
Previous research has shown visual screening is almost as effective in catching cancer as Pap smears, a more expensive technique used in the West, which involves scraping cells from the cervix to be examined under a microscope in a laboratory.
Experts believe that the simple, inexpensive technique could be rolled out across the developing world relatively easily. Pilot projects are already under way in a handful of countries in Asia and Africa.
Other tests, like Pap smears or those to detect the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer, are too expensive for poor countries to adopt. "The visual screening approach is within our grasp," said Dr. Harshad Sanghvi, medical director at JHPIEGO, an international health organization who has worked on preventing cervical in poor countries. "Visual inspection won't have as dramatic an impact as the sophisticated tests, but will have 70 percent of the impact for a minuscule cost."
Officials are already working on a cheaper version of the cervical cancer vaccine, which currently costs about $360 per dose, for the developing world. Together with stepped-up screening, doctors think that cervical cancer might one day be wiped out as a major health problem.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)