Achievable standards, benchmarks for reporting and criteria for evaluating cervical cytopathology.

The cervical smear test, like all screening tests, is not 100% effective in detecting abnormality. In order to prevent 80-90% of invasive cancers, cervical screening requires cervical smears to be taken competently at regular intervals and correctly interpreted. With laboratories following the guidelines in this report, the NHSCSP should be able to meet the Health of the Nation target to reduce the incidence of invasive cervical cancer to less than 12 cases per 100 000 women in the UK by the year 2000.