Preinvasive cervical cancer: how it develops and how to block its progression.

The preinvasive stage of cervical cancer is usually so prolonged and the techniques for its diagnosis and treatment are so well advanced that aggressive surgical treatment should rarely be necessary and the disease should rarely be fatal. That these results have not yet been realized is due largely to the failure of screening programs to reach at-risk populations. At the same time, the widespread use of cytologic screening in some populations has revealed a large number of women with atypical findings who require evaluation and treatment. It is an ongoing clinical concern to protect these patients from the development of invasive disease without overtreating foci of disease that can be destroyed by simple techniques.