Cheap cancer test could save lives

A CHEAP method to detect cervical cancer using vinegar, cotton gauze and a bright light could save millions of women in the developing world, experts reported yesterday.

The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, found a simple screening test to look for the early signs of cervical cancer reduced the numbers of cases by a quarter.

“This is a landmark study,” said Dr Harshad Sanghvi, medical director at JHPIEGO, an international health organisation affiliated with Johns Hopkins University.

Cervical cancer is largely preventable. It causes about 250,000 deaths every year and is the second-most common cancer in women. Nearly 80% of those women are in the developing world.

The visual screening test is done by a nurse or trained healthcare worker who washes a woman’s cervix with vinegar and gauze using a speculum to hold it open. After one minute, any pre-cancerous lesions turn very white and can be seen with the naked eye under a halogen lamp.

Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France and their colleagues from Tamil Nadu in India used the technique to screen 49,311 women in Dindigul district, India, from 2000 to 2003.

There were 167 cervical cancer cases and 83 cervical cancer deaths in the women who received the screening, compared to 158 cases and 92 deaths in those who didn’t.