The number of new cases of cervical cancer in Australia
continues to fall, but there is room for improvement in the rates
of cervical screening, says a report released today by the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Cervical Screening in Australia 2001-2002, the sixth
annual report on the National Cervical Screening Program, shows
that across all age groups there were 745 new cases of cervical
cancer detected in Australia in 2000. This compares with 1072 new
cases detected in 1989, prior to the start of the National Cervical
Screening Program.
Cervical cancer is the 18th most common cause of cancer death in
women, accounting for 227 deaths in 2002.
Report author Janet Markey said that the Program had been very
successful in achieving its goal of screening to detect
abnormalities of the cervix early, so that medical intervention
could stop possible progression to cancer.
'Abnormalities were detected in about 1.8% of all Pap smears
performed in 2002 or over 33,000 in total,' Ms Markey said.
'Successful early detection has contributed to a halving of the
incidence of cervical cancer in women aged 20-69 years between 1982
and 2002, and a 61% drop in the death rate over the same
period.'
The report shows that the participation rate of women in the
program's 20-69 years target age group was stable at 61.0% for the
2000-2001 and 2001-2002 reporting periods, with 3,331,013 women
screened over 2001-2002 two-year period.
This was less, however, than the 63.4% participation rate
recorded in 1998-1999 and 61.3% recorded in 1999-2000.
Ms Markey said that to some extent the decline in screening
rates was a reflection of better accuracy in the measurement of
screening program participation rates-for example better methods of
removing double counting of women who had been tested in more than
one State, and better methods of accounting for and excluding, from
the calculations, women who had had hysterectomies.
But there is still scope for higher screening rates, said Ms
Markey.
'This is of particular importance among Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander women. Cervical cancer incidence was higher among
Indigenous women than among non-Indigenous women in Queensland and
the Northern Territory (the only jurisdictions for which adequate
data were available).
'And our data show that the cervical cancer mortality rate for
Indigenous women aged 20-69 years was almost six times the
corresponding rate for non-Indigenous women.'
18 November 2004
Further information: Ms Janet Markey, AIHW,
tel. 02 6244 1053, or Dr Chris Stevenson, AIHW, tel. 02 6244 1041
or mobile 0407 915 851.
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of Cervical Screening in
Australia 2001-2002, November 2004.