Bid to allay US cancer screening fears

The Health Service Executive (HSE) tonight moved to allay fears doctors were making judgment calls on results from cervical smear tests carried out in the US.

Lobby group the Dublin Well Women Centre warned women’s health was being put at risk as medics here were left to interpret analysis from American labs with little guidance.

But the HSE insisted examinations in private clinics in Chicago and Texas were done to the highest international standards.

US labs were this year used to clear a backlog of more than 35,000 smear tests to ensure women wait no longer than four weeks for results.

“These tests were sent to the US Laboratory in January this year and have all now been processed and reported on,” the HSE said in a statement.

“Each patient’s previous cytology history was attached to the material received by the US Laboratory and was therefore available for interpretation at site.”

The HSE noted the US labs used a system known as the Bethesda Methodology which is being adopted across the EU. Ireland and Britain have yet to use the system, using the British Society of Clinical Cytology (BSCC) methodology instead.

But the HSE said, by law, countries using the BSCC system must translate it to the Bethesda Methodology.

“On this basis, the HSE has ensured that all GPs have received the necessary documentation and translation tables to allow them to interpret the test results they received from the US Laboratory,” the body said.

“The HSE has also established a support service to assist GPs individually, should any queries arise.”

Well Woman had warned there was a danger of misdiagnosis when results are being translated.

“While we welcome the fact that waiting times for smear results have fallen in recent months, the vastly different method used in reporting those results is an issue of concern for us,” Well Woman’s chief executive Alison Begas said.

“Effectively, US laboratories speak a different language and our doctors are being forced to translate from one system to another, without enough guidance. This compromises doctors and patients, and could result in a potential abnormal result slipping through the net.”

Until recently women’s smear tests were sent for analysis to the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.

The warning came as the Well Woman Centre issued its annual report with details of smear tests from three Dublin clinics from 2002 to mid-2006.

The report revealed the majority of abnormal results came from medical-card holders and those on low-incomes.

More than 80% of those tested in the four-year study, aged between 25 and 40, were given the all-clear.

Of those with abnormal test results, the majority were medical card holders and from low-income backgrounds.

The report revealed the Well Woman’s Coolock Clinic had higher referral rates than its clinics at Liffey Street and Pembroke Road.

When further analysed, it found the highest referral rate for hospital tests was among medical card patients.