Cervical cancer: intensified screening in the Lot

Since January 2019, cancer screening has been reorganized by region. The Occitanie Coordination Center supervises this generalized screening, relying on antennas by department. In the Lot, this public health mission which had been started by Adeca46 in 2003, is now developed by the Territorial Site, rue Saint-Géry in Cahors, headed by Doctor Raul Jorge Casaux. The former team and the members of the territorial committee work together, a continuity of action, at the service of the people of Lot.

Among the prevention programs organized, emphasis is placed on the prevention of cervical cancer, particularly in the Lot. The Coordination Center Occitanie wants to make it a pilot department. The regional average is slightly higher and hovers around 62% in order to intensify screening for women between 25 and 65 years of age. A study showed in 2018 that among the 47,000 people of Lot in this age group, only 56% had performed a Pap smear, an examination performed for a large majority by gynecologists (80%). The regional average is slightly higher and hovers around 62%.

In order to accentuate the prevention gesture, the organization targeted the 21,000 women who have not had this examination in three years. The first invitations were sent last November to the department. The Occitanie coordination center has set an ambitious goal, that of reaching the 80% of women screened in the coming years.

2020 is already the year of the generalization of invitations in the Occitania region.

As a reminder, within the framework of organized screening, laboratory analysis is covered 100% by Health Insurance.

The national cervical cancer screening program aims to reduce the incidence and mortality of women due to the disease by 30%. Each year in our country 3,000 cases of invasive cervical cancer are detected and 1,100 patients die from them. A terrible statistic in itself which justifies the amplification of screening and the prevention message. 56% of examinations carried out in the Lot is not enough.

–