New virus test for cervical cancer 'cuts deaths by 50%'

A LONDON professor's cervical cancer test could halve death rate from the disease in the developing world.

The test, which detects the virus that causes cervical cancer, was carried out on 130,000 women in rural India over the past eight years.

The research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine today, found the test reduced the death rate by 50 per cent. It is the culmination of 25 years of work by Professor Attila Lorincz of Queen Mary University.

He said: "You seldom see such large numbers. It does seem revolutionary."

In Britain, women are recommended smear tests every three years. The number taking up the tests is believed to have increased by 20 per cent after Jade Goody was diagnosed with the disease.

But the three-yearly smear test has proved impractical for the developing world because of the expertise required and cost of rescreening.

In Professor Lorincz's Hybrid Capture test, samples are sent to a lab and analysed by automated instruments that detect the human papillomavirus (HPV), the main cause of cancer.

He said: "It is possible to have this test just once and have a large impact on death rates. It is the final formal proof that HPV tests can save lives." The test is available in a small number of laboratories in Britain but not on the NHS.