Some women may be able to go as much as 10 years between cervical screening appointments, according to the results of a key government-funded trial on HPV testing.
The long-term study of 24,500 women attending routine screening appointments in Manchester found that women aged over 40 who have a negative HPV test do not need to be screened for another decade.
In a Health Technology Assessment which will feed into the National Screening Committee’s recommendations, researchers said there is also evidence that younger women with a negative HPV test could go longer than the current three years between screening intervals.