New cervix cancer screening may help prevention

Aurangabad: The department of pathology at the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) is holding a continuing medical education (CME) workshop on the role of liquid based cytology (LBC) in the screening of cervical cancer at the pathology lecture hall from Sunday. Specialists said that a new advancement has been made which can help prevent cervical cancer in 76% of cases.

The GMCH, which was using the conventional Pap smear for the screening of cervical cancer, has now received the LBC machine. Head of department of pathology Rajan Bindu said that the new machine will improve accuracy, help store the sample for up to 6 months, allow the detection of high risk human papillomavirus or HPV and eases the reporting.

“Conventionally, the sample was collected with the a spatula. By the time it was taken on a slide, there was 30% recovery. In the LBC, the sample is collected through a brush which allows the 100% recovery of the sample,” said Bindu.