Background: In 2003 the NHS Cervical Screening Programme in England changed the age at which women are first invited for cervical screening from 20 to 25 years. The aim of this review was to assess the evidence for benefit and harm of undertaking cervical screening in Wales for women aged 20-24 years.
Method: A literature review looking for evidence of the effectiveness and potential harmful effects of cervical screening was undertaken. Welsh data for the number of cases of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) were examined and rates of invasive cervical cancer (1981-2003) for young women calculated. The medical notes of women less than 25 years old diagnosed with cervical cancer were reviewed and a cost analysis was performed.
Results: The literature review failed to identify any randomized controlled studies of the effectiveness of cervical screening in young women, but demonstrated that organized screening programmes result in a decrease in the incidence of cervical carcinoma. Following the introduction of the Welsh organized call/recall cervical screening programme in 1988, cervical cancer has been reduced by 58% in women aged 20-24 years and 45% in women aged 25-29 years (mean age-specific rate per 100,000 women aged 20-24 years: 4.2 in 1981-88 compared with 2.2 in 1989-2003). If these changes can be attributed to the screening of women aged 20-24, then the costs of at least pound sterling 82,500 are estimated to prevent one cervical cancer in this age group.
Conclusions: The incidence of cervical cancer in young women has halved since the introduction of the Welsh-organized call-recall cervical screening programme. In Wales we recommend that women continue to be invited for cervical screening from 20 years of age. This will provide the information required to compare the incidence and stage at diagnosis of cervical cancer in young women invited for first time cervical screening at different ages across the UK.