Cervical Cancer Screening in an Early Diagnosis and Screening Center in Mersin, Turkey

idence. Of all cancer types, cervical cancer is reported to be the fourth most common cancer in women, and theseventh overall, with an estimated 528,000 new cases worldwide in 2012. It features a long preclinical phase withslowly progressing precancerous lesions such as CIN 2 and 3 and adenocarcinoma in situ. Therefore, screeningprograms such as with Pap smear tests may play an important role in cervical cancer prevention. The purposeof this study was to present results of a Pap smear screening survey for cervical cancer targeting women livingin an urban area in the province of Mersin, located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. This communitybaseddescriptive study included women living at Akdeniz county of Mersin province. A total of 1,032 screenedwomen between 30 and 65 ages within the routine screening programme constituted the study population. Themean age of the participants was 43.8±8.6 (min. 30, max. 65) years. The percentage of the participants who hadpreviously undergone smears was 40.6%. Epithelial cell changes were found in 26 (2.5%) participants, withASC-US in 18 (1.7%), ASC-H in 2 (0.2%), LSIL in 5 (0.5%) and HSIL in 1 (0.1%). The most common clinicalpresentation together with epithelial changes was abnormal vaginal discharge. Taking into account the presenceof women who had never undergone Pap test; it should be offered at primary level of health care in the form ofa community-based service to achieve reduced morbidity and mortality rates.