Dr. Peter McKenna:

I am not aware of the details of the unfortunate person at the centre of this case. However, if one had a clinical cancer, the chances of finding abnormal cells on the smear are less than if for a pre-cancer, the reason being that a clinical cancer may be ulcerated and one will have lots of blood cells, white cells. The smear programme is not designed to pick up cancers but to pick up pre-cancers. I am not in a position to draw any statistical significance from the lessons from one person.