10,000 volunteers to help with research to improve
cervical screening in the UK
10,000 women between the ages of 20 and 59 from the Grampian, Tayside and Nottingham areas are to be invited to take part in a study that will help improve cervical screening in the UK.
The seven year, £3 million Trial of Management of Borderline and Other Low-grade Abnormal smears (TOMBOLA), funded jointly by the Medical Research Council and the NHS, will be led by Professor Julian Little, of Aberdeen University, Dr Ian Duncan, University of Dundee and Dr David Jenkins, University of Nottingham.
The TOMBOLA team are writing to eligible women in the study areas, inviting them to take part. Professor Little hopes that women who are invited to join the study will seriously consider the benefits of doing so. Speaking today he said: “There is a real need to determine which approach is best for women. TOMBOLA is the only way to evaluate this.”
In recent years the UK Cervical Screening Programme (CSP) has significantly reduced the incidence of, and deaths form cervical cancer. Improvement in detection for women at greater risk of developing cervical cancer is important but the other major challenge for the UK CSP is to identify correctly those women who have very little risk even though their smears show a minor abnormality.
TOBMOLA will compare the two different approaches commonly used for women who have minor smear abnormalities. These approaches are either:
1. repeating smear checks at 6 monthly intervals in the GP’s surgery in the expectation that many of these minor changes are temporary and will settle without any treatment at all, or
2. examination with a colposcope at the hospital in anticipation that some of these women will already have very early pre-cancerous changes present which do not yet represent any real threat to the woman’s wellbeing but which can be easily removed.
Unnecessary investigation and treatment and any associated anxiety is undesirable for women with a minor smear abnormality. The TOMBOLA study aims to establish which management approach is most acceptable to such women.
Part of the study will also evaluate viral testing in addition to smears which may help predict what type of abnormality is present.
Professor Little and his colleagues in Nottingham and Tayside stress: “It is important that we understand how women feel about cervical screening and any treatment they may require.
“We are appealing for women to get involved in this important project to help shape the most efficient and effective healthcare for managing women with minor smear abnormalities. We hope women will see this as a good opportunity to come forward and help us make a difference.”
Further information from:
Maureen Heddle, Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust Tel: 01224 559408
Lindyanne Alexander, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, Tel: 01382 632500
Lisa Coulson, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, Tel: 0115 924 9924, Ext. 42559
Christine Cook, Executive Director of Public Relations, Tel: +44 (0)1224 272104
University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.