A well-researched investigation and subsequent report will always raise as many questions as answers. This is true of Dr Gabriel Scally’s scoping report into the CervicalCheck controversy, published this week. Of 1,000 women screened using Pap smears, 20 will have pre-cancerous changes. However, only 15 of these 20 will ever be picked up by a national screening programme. Some five out of 20 pre-cancerous smears will be labelled normal when they are not, representing a relatively high rate of false negative tests.

Source: The Irish Times September 14, 2018 00:00 UTC