Cervical Carcinoma, Breast and Bowel Screening Flashcards
What is the underlying cause of cervical carcinoma?
HPV
What are the risk factors for cervical carcinoma?
Multiple sexual partners Male partner with multiple previous/current partners Young age at first intercourse High parity Persistent infection Use of oral contraceptive pill Smoking Immunosuppression
Low risk types of HPV can cause…?
Warts
In cells affected with HOV cervical intraepithelial neoplasia can occur. What does this mean in terms of how a cell looks down a microscope?
Cells have noticeable larger, more irregular nuclei. Thus are described as dyskaryotic.
What are the three grades of CIN?
Grade one - only affecting bottom third of cells
Grade two - moving into the middle third of cells
Grade three - CIN is full thickness
CIN is the latent phase of cervical carcinoma. How long does it usually take for invasive cancer to Develop?
Two years or more
In the current cervical carcinoma screening programme what happens to patients with borderline changes to the epithelium?
They enter a follow up programme where they have more frequent smear tests to try to establish whether changes resolve themselves or not
What is colposcopy?
The examination of the cervix using a specialist microscope
Breast screening is offered to women in Scotland every three years between what age range?
50-70
An ultrasound rather than mammogram is a better diagnostic tool for what age group of women when doing breast screening?
Younger women
Between what age range are people in Scotland offered screening for bowel cancer?
50-74
In bowel screening,the detection of what would indicate bowel cancer?
Faecal occult blood
