Research Project on Reminders and Self-Sampling Can Increase Participation in Gynecology Cell Sampling - Preventive Examination Against Cervical Cancer.

Prevention of cervical cancer with cervical screening is one of the most successful screening activities in medicine. In Sweden, screening was implemented in the 1960s and has since prevented tens of thousands of women from having cervical cancer. Individual invitations to screening result in increased attendance therefore evaluating strategies for reaching women through invitations is particularly valuable. Women who regularly attend screening following an invitation reduce their risk of cervical cancer by as much as 90%. Of the women who are diagnosed with cervical cancer (about 550 women per year in Sweden), as many as 38% did not participate in the screening. Invitations for screening are sent to the entire population in Sweden aged 23-70. The current coverage of screening is 82.9%, which represents the proportion of women ages 23-70 who attend according to recommendations. In addition, many women are sporadic attenders who reduce their risk for cancer somewhat. The highest cancer risk is seen among those women who have never participated as well as women who have had a history of precancerous lesions or HPV infection but have not been followed-up. Cervical cancer is the first form of cancer for which there are approved molecular screening tests (HPV test). Unlike the older screening method (cytology), self-collected samples can be analyzed for HPV (the analysis method is so sensitive that it does not matter if the sample is not optimally taken). Invitations and reminders about cervical screening are sent by letter to the woman's home address (about 3 million letters per year in Sweden). This strategy results in a waste of resources and has a negative environmental impact. Regarding reminders, we have seen in previous research that the effect is not optimal. When sending a physical reminder letter to women who have not participated in more than 10 years (current routine), only 2% of the women invited came for sampling. Reminders with SMS are now standard for many businesses in society, such as car testing or dental appointments. It is inexpensive, saves the environment and there are studies that suggest it is more effective than sending physical letters. In this study, we intend to investigate whether SMS reminders, electronic letters, and physical letters for screening lead to increased participation and thus to a higher proportion of detected, treatable precursors of cervical cancer compared to before.

Sex

Female

Minimum age

33 Years

Maximum age

75 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Women resident in Region Skane who either: 1) have had glandular cell transformation that has not been followed-up, 2) are older than 65 years and have had cell transformation that has not been followed-up or who have not participated in screening during the last 10 years, 3) women who have not been screened for more than 15 years.

Exclusion Criteria:

* No exclusion except those who do not consent.

• BACKGROUNDElfstrom KM, Sundstrom K, Andersson S, Bzhalava Z, Carlsten Thor A, Gzoul Z, Ohman D, Lamin H, Eklund C, Dillner J, Tornberg S. Increasing participation in cervical screening by targeting long-term nonattenders: Randomized health services study. Int J Cancer. 2019 Dec 1;145(11):3033-3039. doi: 10.1002/ijc.32374. Epub 2019 May 10. PMID 31032904
• RESULTArroyo Muhr LS, Wang J, Hassan SS, Yilmaz E, Elfstrom MK, Dillner J. Nationwide registry-based trial of risk-stratified cervical screening. Int J Cancer. 2025 Jan 15;156(2):379-388. doi: 10.1002/ijc.35142. Epub 2024 Aug 15. PMID 39146489
• RESULTWang J, Elfstrom KM, Borgfeldt C, Dillner J. A pilot study of risk-stratified cervical cancer screening. Open Res Eur. 2022 Sep 1;1:84. doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.13398.2. eCollection 2021. PMID 37645164