for eMaxHealthDetecting Early Signs of Cervical Cancer
Experts from France and India have come up with a cheap method to detect cervical cancer using vinegar, cotton gauze and a bright light could save millions of women worldwide.
In a study researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France, together with colleagues from Tamil Nadu in India, said that a visual screening test to look for the early signs of cervical cancer reduced the numbers of cases by a quarter.
"This is a landmark study," said Dr Harshad Sanghvi, medical director at JHPIEGO, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, which has worked on preventing cervical cancer in poor countries.
Though preventable, Cervical cancer causes about 250,000 deaths every year and is the second-most common cancer in women, with nearly 80 per cent of these women belonging to the developing world.
The test is done by a nurse or trained health care worker who washes a woman's cervix with vinegar and gauze using a speculum to hold it open.
After one minute, any pre-cancerous lesions turn very white and can be seen with the naked eye under a halogen lamp.
Officials used the technique among a group of 49,311 women, in Dindigul district, India, from 2000 to 2003.
When pre-cancerous lesions were found, health care workers gave immediate treatment to destroy the abnormal cervical tissue.
Another 30,958 women received standard care, which includes monitoring the symptoms of cervical cancer and visits to the health care facilities where screening was available.
These women were tracked from 2000 to 2006.
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