Cervical smear tests could identify ovarian and womb cancer

DNA from cervical screening samples could be used to identify ovarian and womb cancers, a study has suggested.

The Press Association has reported that scientists from John Hopkins Medical Institutes extended the screening programme's DNA testing to find changes linked specifically to womb and ovarian cancer from cells that had fallen down to the cervix.

As part of the work, 24 women were identified who had gone on to develop womb cancer, while nine out of 22 females later suffered ovarian cancer.

Researchers believe that such a test could be effective for women with ovarian cancer, as the disease is difficult to diagnose early, making it often more difficult to treat.

Also, the work saw no healthy samples being wrongly identified as cancer, which often crop up as "false-positive" results.

Speaking to the news provider, Dr Jacqui Shaw, a Cancer Research UK grant holder from the University of Leicester, said: "This is an exciting early study. It suggests that the national cervical screening programme could one day be expanded to test for ovarian and womb cancers too.

"The idea of testing women's cervical screening samples for DNA from ovarian and womb cancers is clever, and this small study shows this may be possible in the future."

However, Ms Shaw warned that further research into the field is necessary.

"It will also be interesting to see whether expanding the number of genes analysed could make the test more accurate, especially for detecting ovarian cancer, which is notoriously difficult to diagnose early," she continued.

Recently, Merck launched a cervical cancer scheme with the Republic of Uganda.

The work will see the organisation donate 460,000 does of GARDASIL to the region over two years, with the drug being used to treat girls between nine and 13.

Posted by Fiona Griffiths