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Sheffield (pte051/21.04.2005/16:15) - Smear tests for spotting cervical cancers could be replaced by a probe that gives on-the-spot results, scientists claim. As the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk reports, the device, designed by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust http://www.sth.nhs.uk researchers, is the size of a pen and uses electrical currents to scan cells. It should mean that women can get results immediately instead of waiting for weeks as some are doing now, according to the inventors. The British scientists have tested it on around 400 women in the UK.
These studies have shown that the probe can spot early changes in the cells of the cervix that suggest a cancer may be developing. These are the same cells that are examined by smear tests. Currently, doctors have to send off the smear slide to a laboratory to be read, which can take up to five weeks. With the probe, the doctor would be able to examine the woman and check within minutes whether any of the cells have changes that might mean they are becoming cancerous. The probe sends the information it finds down a wire to a computer to analyse, which will tell the doctor the result. If the results show up abnormalities, the doctor can send the woman for further tests and treatment if necessary.
"This will cut the time between diagnosis and treatment and avoid causing women to worry, often unnecessarily, while they wait for results," said consultant gynaecologist John Tidy, who has been leading the study. "The introduction of a probe instead of smear testing may prove beneficial in the future as it will reduce the costs of the national screening programme. We are also facing a national shortage of hispathologists - the clinical scientists who process tests in the laboratories - so replacing smear tests could ensure that waiting times for test results are kept to a minimum."
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