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Although cervical cancer screening is known to lower mortality from this disease, the extent of such prevention is uncertain. In this national cohort study, Swedish investigators applied statistical techniques to determine whether cervical screening “results in better prognosis or merely increases the lead time until death” in women with cervical cancer.
All 1230 women who received cervical cancer diagnoses in Sweden from 1999 through 2001 were followed for a median of 8.5 years. For women with screen-detected cancers (abnormal smears 1–6 months before diagnosis), 5-year survival and cure rates were 95% and 92%, respectively; for women with symptomatic cancers (never screened or last screening >6 months before diagnosis), these outcomes were…