Table 1.
Predicted annual use of resources and incidence of invasive cancer when women are screened every three years and 85% of eligible women are screened
| Screening policy | Annual resources used/100 000 women (% decrease from policy of no early withdrawal)
|
Incidence of invasive cancer/100 000 women (% increase over policy of no early withdrawal) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smear test | Colposcopy* | Test for HPV | ||
| No early withdrawal | 17 600 | 218 | 0 | 10.8 |
| Withdrawal from age 60: | ||||
| Policy 1 | 17 000 (3.6) | 213 (2.5) | 0 | 11.0 (1.9) |
| Policy 2 | 16 900 (4.0) | 213 (2.6) | 1030 | 10.9 (1.4) |
| Withdrawal from age 55: | ||||
| Policy 1 | 15 300 (13.3) | 198 (9.4) | 0 | 11.8 (9.0) |
| Policy 2 | 15 000 (14.5) | 197 (9.6) | 1110 | 11.5 (6.8) |
| Withdrawal from age 50: | ||||
| Policy 1 | 13 400 (23.8) | 180 (17.6) | 0 | 13.1 (21.1) |
| Policy 2 | 13 100 (25.3) | 180 (17.5) | 1160 | 12.5 (16.0) |
HPV=human papillomavirus; in Policy 1 a woman is withdrawn from screening if she is over a specified age, her smear test result is negative, and her previous three smears were negative and taken regularly three years apart; in Policy 2 a woman is withdrawn if she is over a specified age, her smear test result is negative, and a test for HPV infection is negative for high risk types of the virus.
*
Rounded to nearest integer.