 Full programme transcript >>
Cervical Cancer
In this edition of Case Notes, Dr Mark Porter examines cancer of the cervix.
His guest in the studio is Dr Anne Szarewski from the Margaret Pyke Centre – a family planning clinic in Central London.
Government advisors on the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation are meeting later this month to decide if a vaccine against the virus that causes cervical cancer – HPV (human papilloma virus) - should be included in our routine immunisation programme.
How does the HPV vaccine work? How effective is it - and who should be offered it, and at what age? Professor Albert Singer, consultant gynaecologist at the Whittington Hospital in North London, gives Mark the lowdown on the virus and vaccine.
While approval for the HPV vaccine is still pending, our best defence against cervical cancer remains the NHS screening programme based on the smear test. Louise Cadman, a nurse at the Margaret Pyke Centre, describes what's involved in the test.
If, as the result of a smear test, more investigation is required, the patient will be sent for a colposcopy. Lesley Hilton visited the Colposcopy Clinic at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead to find out more about the procedure. |
30 min
