[To what extent have early cancer detection and preventive examination for cancer of the uterine cervix fulfilled established expectations?].

The results of cytological screening examinations of women are reported. The study was performed over a ten-year period and comprised 748,871 examinations of 281,705 women. Many long-term observations are among them. 28,171 women (10%) had more than five cytological repeat findings in this period. Basing on the presented dates the following aspects speak in favour of the effectivity of the screening examinations: 1. The decrease of cytological rates of discovery between first examination and repeated examination, 2. the new increase of rates of discovery in case of longer intervals between the examinations, 3. the shifting of the relation between dysplasias, carcinomata in situ and invasive carcinomas in favour of the less severe pathological changes. The rate of newly discovered cervical carcinomas decreased between 1971 and 1980 from 0.9% to 0.2%, the rate of newly discovered carcinomata in situ and severe dysplasias decreased from 3.5% to 1.2%. For future planning of screening programmes several problems have to be taken into consideration--for example, the low attendance rate of women at regular screening examinations, the high rate of false-negative cytological findings and questions of efficiency of programmes in repeatedly examined groups of population.