26 August 2010 : The European Commission has granted Marketing Authorisation to amend the licence for GSK's cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix®. The summary of product characteristics (SPC) for Cervarix® will be updated to include the prevention of infction by the two vaccine types contained in the vaccine (HPV 16 and 18) and the three next most common cancer-causing virus types (HPV 31, 33 and 45). Together these five HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33 and 45) account for 80 percent of all cervical cancers.
http://www.gsk.com/media/pressreleases/2010/2010_pressrelease_10085.htm
24 August 2010 : The British Society for Clinical Cytology is again able to support nominations for national Bronze, Silver and Gold Clinical Excellence Awards. The BSCC is allowed to support only a limited number of nominations. ACCEA set quotas for Bronze, Silver and Gold awards based on the number of eligible consultants within the Society. The BSCC is keen to support its members as effectively as possible in achieving higher awards. Details of eligibility, application process, guidance for applicants etc can be found on the respective national CEA websites.
BSCC members in England eligible for these awards are invited to self nominate using the forms that will shortly be available on the ACCEA website.
BSCC members in Wales should use these forms and BSCC members in Scotland should use the forms published on http://www.shsc.scot.nhs.uk/shsc/default.asp?p=71.
If you are applying for a National Award in 2011, you should self nominate and send your completed application electronically by the relevant closing date, which this year is Friday 10 December 2010.
If you would like the BSCC to consider your application in its ranking process, then please send a copy of your completed application to Christian Burt at the Society headquarters (mail@bscc.net.uk) by midnight on Friday 22 October 2010 - late submissions will not be considered under any circumstances. The submission should be accompanied by a personal statement of not more than 250 words giving evidence of how you have contributed to cytology and/or the Society at regional, national or international level. The BSCC Higher Awards Committee will use these documents to prepare appropriate citations and submit a ranked list of names and supporting citations to the relevant national CEA body.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if any further clarification is required. Tel 0114 2713728. Email: John.H.Smith@sth.nhs.uk
Dr J H F Smith
President, BSCC
Chair, BSCC Higher Awards Committee
21 August 2010 : Public pressure from advocacy groups has resulted in the Indian government suspending demonstration projects for HPV vaccination in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60881-1/fulltext?_eventI...
20 August 2010 : An article from the current issue of Cytopathology has appeared in the daily news of Icelandic Review Online. The review article was written by Kristján Sigurdsson, senior physician at the Icelandic Cancer Society’s Screening Center, and is a glowing report of the success of the cervical screening programme in Iceland since organised screening began.
Editor's Choice is a new initiative by the editor of the journal Cytopathology. Selected papers will, for a limited time only, be free to download by members and non-members alike. The Cytopathology section of the resources page will always contain a link to the most recent Editor's Choice article.
http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=59348&ew_0_a_id=366419
14 August 2010 : Despite major investments in cancer biomarker research, a depressing fact is that most initially promising biomarker discoveries have failed to result in clinically useful tests.
http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/djq335v1
08 August 2010 : Although Australia and the UK have achieved high coverage rates in their HPV vaccination programmes, the US and many other countries are struggling to achieve even modest uptake. In 2008 for instance, fewer than 1 in 5 adolescent girls in the US received the full 3-dose HPV vaccination. The problems are complex and relate as much to race, culture, insurance type, and infrastructure as they do to costs.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncy.20084/full
18 July 2010 : A very useful fully searchable database.
http://www.nhs.thescienceregistry.com/search.asp?title=2
14 April 2010 : Following consideration of the evidence published since 2002 the Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening (England) is unanimous in its decision not to lower the age at first invitation from 25 to 20.
Further details in the research section.
http://www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk/cervical/publications/nhscsp31.pdf
08 April 2010 : The England Action Plan for the Modernising Scientific Careers agenda sets out how implementation will be achieved by working with SHAs and other key stakeholders to ensure a phased approach.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidan...
24 March 2010 : Kathryn Hinchliff, Nick Dudding, Keith Faulkner and John Smith representing the NHS Yorkshire & The Humber and the East Pennine Cytology Training Centre have received this prestigious award for achieving excellence in learning, teaching, development or mentorship, supported by GateHouse Training. Congratulations!!!
In addition the team won the overall award. The judges felt that "This was an ambitious project to raise standards of training in the region, which was regarded as inadequate. They rose to the double challenge of merging the schools and training the workforce in the new technique of liquid-based cytology. The judges felt it showed sound leadership and excellent team working with a keen eye on future changes and developments.
With regards the overall award the judges "were taken by surprise by this entry. Training all cytology staff in the revolutionary new way of testing is one major achievement but to have done that at the same time as creating a new centre of excellence is a double achievement. But what impressed the judges most was the obvious leadership and team working, respect for each others strengths and a real vision for the future"
http://www.chamberlaindunn.com/AHPandHSawards/AHPandHSAwards2009.htm
21 March 2010 : The most recent results from the TOMBOLA (Trial of the Management of Borderline and Other Low grade Abnormalities) group have shown that 40% of women testing positive for HPV after a mild cytological abnormality result did not develop CIN during a three-year follow-up. Furthermore, 22% of women who developed CIN2+ were HPV-negative at baseline. The authors conclude that HPV testing for the triage of low grade cytological abnormalities "may not add any value".
More details in the research section.
http://www.bjog.org/details/journalArticle/589553/The_role_of_human_papillomavirus_testing...
16 March 2010 : A joint survey between the Royal College of Pathologists and the British Society for Clinical Cytology has been created as a specialty specific module of the Electronic Workforce Database.
In view of the ongoing and potential changes in cytopathology practice in the UK, the RCPath Cytopathology Sub-committee and BSCC Council feel that it is appropriate to undertake a comprehensive review of the medical workforce practicing in cytopathology. Please complete the survey, even if cytopathology constitutes only a small part of your clinical practice. The survey should take 10-15 minutes to complete.
To access, please visit the Workforce database at www.rcpath.org to complete the survey.
You will need your existing College website username and password. If you need a username and password, please press ‘Register’ on the College homepage.
Please update your record before completing the survey. NB you will need to enter your specialty and click ‘save’ before the survey will be available.
Your confidentiality is assured. The final reports from the survey will be anonymised.
For assistance, contact the Database Helpdesk on 0870 840 8033 (open 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday). For other enquiries, please contact Fiona Addiscott at workforceplanning@rcpath.org
Please complete the survey by Friday 30 April 2010.
Your help with this survey is greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Professor Tim Stephenson
Director of Workforce Planning
Dr John H F Smith
President BSCC & Chair Cytopathology Sub-committee
14 March 2010 : Home testing kits for detecting HPV could lead to twice as many cases of cervical cancer being diagnosed compared with the regular screening programme.
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/340/mar11_1/c1040
04 March 2010 : Following a review of the cervical screening age by the Advisory Committee on Cervical Screening (ACCS) in May 2009 (at which members unanimously agreed that the screening start age should remain at age 25), the committee has produced new guidance for primary care on the management of young women who present with gynaecological symptoms.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidan...
03 March 2010 : This new document from the Department of Health informs key stakeholders of the strategy for the development of Healthcare science workforce and their education and training as initially outlined in A High Quality Workforce. It sets out how it is intended to take forward proposals on career pathways, regulation and standards of education and training, education and training programmes and on supporting delivery.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidan...
20 February 2010 : This document is now available to download from the NHS Cancer Screening Programmes website.
http://www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk/cervical/publications/2009review.html
20 February 2010 : "Papanicolaou cytological screening, done correctly, is a sure thing. HPV vaccination, done correctly, is not."
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)60270-X/fulltext?_eventI...
23 January 2010 : A study published in the British Journal of Cancer has predicted that the number of women in their twenties diagnosed with cervical cancer will by 63 per cent in the next fifteen years. The researchers also predicted 51 per cent fewer women will have CIN3 and there will be 27 per cent fewer abnormal smear tests which are less severe than CIN3.
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/pressrelease/2010-01-20-hpv-jab-prevents-cer...
07 December 2009 : Get involved - email now at diagnoseit@dh.gsi.gov.uk
07 December 2009 : The Chief Scientific Officer would like to create a national network of healthcare science ambassadors in collaboration with STEMNET to support schools‘ science activities to raise awareness of the diversity of career opportunities
healthcare science professions provide. Could this be you?
Email: diagnoseit@dh.gsi.gov.uk or register at:
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