Clinical indications referrals - what is the risk of premalignant and malignant female genital tract disease in women referred to a dedicated nurse-led colposcopy service? A retrospective cohort study.

Post-coital bleeding (PCB) is a poor predictive factor for cancer and should not be managed as urgent referral. Urgent referral to colposcopy is justified however, in the presence of a visible suspicion of cervical cancer. This retrospective cohort study of women attending a clinical indications referral service aims to identify the risk of pre-malignant and malignant disease in women with clinical indication referrals to colposcopy. Thirty-seven of 3521 women (1%) were diagnosed with pre-malignant cervical or endometrial disease; 14 women (0.4%) were diagnosed with cancer (11 cervix, three endometrial). To detect one cancer in women referred with an abnormal cervix, one would need to see 70 women; to detect one cancer in women referred with PCB one would need to see 790 women. Improved education in primary care and obstetrics and gynaecology training is key to improving clinical indications referral services, which is otherwise an effective and efficient service.Impact StatementWhat is already known on this subject? Post-coital bleeding is a poor predictive factor for cancer and should not be considered an urgent referral.What do the results of this study add? The presence of a visible suspicion of cervical cancer however does warrant urgent referral as approximately one in 70 women will have a malignancy detected.What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Improved education in primary care and obstetrics and gynaecology training is the key to improving clinical indications referral services.

Invasive cervical cancer audit: What lessons can we learn locally and where would we stand with regard to duty of candour?

OBJECTIVE: To identify lessons learned locally from the invasive cervical cancer audit. To estimate the impact that the application of 'Duty of Candour' may have upon our future service provision. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study with interval analysis of all women diagnosed with cervical cancer at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 1 April 2007 to 31 December 2019. Data were collected prospectively with retrospective categorisation by screening history and invasive cervical cancer audit outcomes as satisfactory, satisfactory with learning points, and unsatisfactory. Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-squared test and paired t-test. RESULTS: Cervical cancer was diagnosed in 344 women. Seventy-eight (23%) had no record of prior cervical cytology, 108 (31%) had delayed attendance to the screening programme, 102 (30%) were detected by routine screening, and 56 (16%) were screening programme compliant. Satisfactory management was undertaken in 301 (87.5%) cases, 26 cases (7.5%) were satisfactory with learning points, and 17 cases (5%) were considered as unsatisfactory. CONCLUSIONS: Seventeen cases were applicable to the Duty of Candour process equating to 1.3 cases per year, incurring minimal impact upon future service provision. Invasive audit categorisation is subject to bias, however, with the potential for considerable intra- and inter-observer variation; the authors accordingly recommend that a further study be conducted to investigate both the consistency and reproducibility of the invasive cervical cancer audit categorisation.