Cervical screening saves around 4,500 lives every year
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The age at which women in England are screened for cervical cancers is to be reviewed by ministers
Ministers will decide later this year if the age that women are offered smear tests should be lowered from 25 to 20-24, as they are in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The age was moved to 25 in 2003, after it was decided that it did more harm than good in younger women, and because so few cervical cancers are detected in women aged under-25.
There have been calls to lower the screening age since the high-profile case of Jade Goody, 27, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer last year and now has just weeks to live after the cancer spread to her liver, groin, bowel and brain. Since her diagnosis there has been a huge rise in the number of women taking smear tests.
The terminally ill mother of two hopes to help take a petition to Downing Street calling for the screening age to be lowered.
The expert panel will look at trends in cervical cancer in young women, as well as the impact of the HPV vaccination, which protects against a virus known to cause the majority of cervical cancers.
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