title: Cervical and oral cancer screening in India.
abstract: Incidence of both cervical and oral cancer are high in India. Although there are no organized cervical or oral screening programmes in the country, a number of research projects are ongoing or recently completed. In cervical screening, a number of studies of visual inspection with various aids and studies of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing are in progress. Long-term follow-up of these will inform policy on cervical screening in limited resource countries. A randomized trial of oral visual inspection for cancer or premalignant lesions in 192,053 subjects has been conducted in Kerala, South India. In the trial population as a whole, the study group showed a non-significant 21% reduction in mortality from oral cancer compared with the control group. In users of alcohol, tobacco or both, in which more than 90% of oral cancer deaths occurred, the reduction was a significant 34% (relative risk = 0.66, 95% confidence interval 0.45-0.95). On the basis of these results, screening for oral abnormalities has the potential to prevent 37,000 deaths per year worldwide.
authors.affiliation: International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon, Cedex 08, France. sankar@iarc.fr
authors.forename: Rengaswamy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sankaranarayanan
authors.forename: Ketayun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dinshaw
authors.forename: Bhagwan M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Nene
authors.forename: Kunnambath
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ramadas
authors.forename: Pulikattil Okkaru
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Esmy
authors.forename: Kasturi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jayant
authors.forename: Thara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Somanathan
authors.forename: Surendra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shastri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control