Current aims and challenges associated with cervical cancer prevention.

This chapter will review the current modalities available to the clinician to screen for premalignant and malignant cervical lesions, which cast a broad net. The majority who test positive are not destined to suffer from or die from cervical cancer. Many who undergo screening and are triaged are young and subsequently face a number of aggressive and destructive therapies. This calls into question whether higher-risk patients should be managed more aggressively than an average-risk patient represented in the study population used to craft the guidelines.