Cervical screening during the COVID-19 pandemic: optimising recovery strategies

Authors: Castanon, Alejandra ;

Rebolj, Matejka;

Burger, Emily Annika;

de Kok, Inge M. C. M.;

Smith, Megan A.;

Hanley, Sharon J.B.;

Carozzi, Francesca Maria;

Peacock, Stuart;

O'Mahony, James F.

Source: Lancet Public Health

Full text

: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00078-5

Abstract

Disruptions to cancer screening services have been experienced in most settings as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ideally, programmes would resolve backlogs by temporarily expanding capacity; however, in practice, this is often not possible. We aim to inform the deliberations of decision makers in high-income settings regarding their cervical cancer screening policy response. We caution against performance measures that rely solely on restoring testing volumes to pre-pandemic levels because they will be less effective at mitigating excess cancer diagnoses than will targeted measures. These measures might exacerbate pre-existing inequalities in accessing cervical screening by disregarding the risk profile of the individuals attending. Modelling of cervical screening outcomes before and during the pandemic supports risk-based strategies as the most effective way for screening services to recover. The degree to which screening is organised will determine the feasibility of deploying some risk-based strategies, but implementation of age-based risk stratification should be universally feasible.

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Castanon, A., Rebolj, M., Burger, E., de Kok, I., Smith, M., Hanley, S., Carozzi, F., Peacock, S. & O'Mahony, J. 2021, 'Cervical screening during the COVID-19 pandemic: optimising recovery strategies', Lancet Public Health, 6(7), pp. E522-E527. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00078-5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00078-5

Repository URI: https://hdl.handle.net/2164/19896