Cancer of the cervix. A community approach.

The importance of mass screening for female carcinoma is documented once again, and the results of such a program within a small, closed island population are presented and discussed. A 63.4 per cent participation among 369 eligible females resulted in findings of a 3.0 per cent prevalence of uterine cancer--5 persons with cervical, 4 intraepithelial and 1 invasive, and 2 with endometrial carcinoma. No evidence of ovarian or breast cancer was produced. One interesting observation was that of 2 women with cervical carcinoma in situ who had been married to the same man. The failure of the participants to return at regular intervals on a personal basis for repeat cancer examinations (68 per cent) suggests the ineffectiveness of such as a program to stimulate a sustained awareness of the danger of female carcinoma. Indifference rather than poverty probably accounts for this lack of concern.