HC Deb 04 May 1989 vol 152 cc229-30W
Mr. Tony Lloyd

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many deaths occur annually from cervical cancer; and what estimates he has made of the reduction in that number if there were a 100 per cent. response to a call and recall system.

Mr. Freeman

There have been for several years around 2,000 deaths annually in England and Wales from malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri and there were 1,903 deaths in 1987. Cervical smears taken every five years between the ages of 20 and 64 could reduce by more than 80 per cent. the number of deaths which would otherwise occur from cancer of the cervix.