Dr. Peter McKenna:

We all share the concern that a waiting time in excess of a couple of months is far from ideal. It is probably true that the women who came for the reassuring test out of sequence probably have a lower incidence of abnormality than those who have waited five years for their smear. However, having said that, of course, women in that group, in the 80,000, will have abnormal smears. As I have said here previously, the natural history of cervical cancer is that there is a lead-in time of ten to 15 years. Most of those women who have abnormal smears will be a long way from developing cervical cancer but there will inevitably be some women who are nearer the stage of transitioning from pre-invasive to invasive. It is not possible to give an estimate of the number. It would be foolhardy to say there is no risk but, in general, the risk is low.