The abnormal cervical smear.

The relative ineffectiveness of the screening programme in the United Kingdom seems to be related to two factors: the lack of an initial call system coupled with inadequacy of record and recall systems for women with abnormal findings and the fact that most smears are performed on relatively low risk young women. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of the precancerous lesions found, especially in young women, with an associated increase in deaths in this group, and this is imposing a great strain on the cytology screening system.2