Dr Anne Szarewski

Dr Anne Szarewski

Cancer Research UK Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics Unit
Wolfson Institute for Preventive Medicine, Barts & The London School of Medicine & Dentistry
London

Cervical cancer screening and prevention

Dr Anne Szarewski is a Clinical Consultant at Cancer Research UK's Centre for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine. She is a leading expert in cervical cancer and is carrying out important studies looking at new screening methods for this disease. She is also interested in how the new cervical cancer vaccines may be used to prevent even more cases of cervical cancer.

Cervical Screening

The current NHS cervical cancer screening programme uses the smear test to detect abnormal cell changes in the cervix and pick up cancer at a very early stage. Dr Szarewski is looking at other ways to screen for pre-cancerous changes in order to save even more lives each year.

HPV testing

The majority of cervical cancer cases are caused by infection with certain 'high-risk' strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV). Because of this, Dr Szarewski carried out a large study involving over 2,500 women to monitor the benefits of testing for HPV infection.

She found that HPV testing is a more sensitive method for detecting changes leading to cervical cancer than the traditional PAP smear. Her results also suggest that HPV screening can be carried out less frequently than the current test, meaning that the screening interval could potentially be increased.

Dr Szarewski is also studying whether women could carry out the HPV test at home as this may encourage more people to participate. In addition to HPV, she is studying proteins in cervical cells that could be used to detect cervical cancer and may be incorporated into future screening tests.

Cervical Cancer Vaccines

As HPV infection is the major cause of cervical cancer, scientists have developed an HPV vaccine that is highly effective at protecting girls against infection, preventing cervical cancer. A government-funded vaccination programme for 12-13 year olds, which started in September 2008, is being rolled out across the UK.

Dr Szarewski is interested in how these HPV vaccines can be used not only to prevent cancer in girls that have never been exposed to HPV but also in older women who may already have come in contact with the virus.

She is currently leading two clinical trials monitoring HPV vaccines in women aged 15-25 or over 26 years of age. Her aim is to investigate if the boost to the body's immune system can prevent HPV infections and therefore prevent cervical cancer.

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