Read article Womb cancer screening
This page tells you about screening for womb cancer.
Screening means testing healthy people, with no symptoms, to see if they have a very early form of a disease.
Before screening for any type of cancer can be carried out, doctors must have an accurate test to use. The test must be reliable in picking up cancers that are there. And it must not give false positive results in people who do not have cancer.
At the moment there is no screening test that is accurate and reliable enough to detect womb cancer in the general population.
Some women from families with a history of certain cancers are known to be at higher risk of womb cancer. These are known as HNPCC or Lynch syndrome families. These women may benefit from regular checks for signs of womb cancer.
Some doctors start giving vaginal ultrasound scans and hysteroscopies to women from these families when they are in their mid 20s to 30s. Other doctors may only investigate when someone has symptoms. At this time there is no single accepted method of screening for womb cancer in these families and doctors are waiting for national guidance.
There is more general information about cancer screening in our screening section.
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