Cervical cancer is globally one of the most common cancers in women. Before the cervical screening program, 2% of women developed cervical cancer during their lifetime. Today only 550 women are affected yearly. This lower level will require continued organized cervical screening and HPV vaccination. If you always participate in organized cervical screening when invited, your risk of cervical cancer is reduced by about 90%. In recent years, vaccination against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) has also been added to prevent this disease. HPV vaccination reduces the risk of cervical cancer by about 70% and an optimal protection is obtained if you are both vaccinated against HPV and participate in the organized cervical screening program when you are invited.

The Swedish National Cervical Screening Registry (NKCx) has extensive experience and expertise in analysing and evaluating the effect of the preventive programs. The NKCx database has 100% national coverage, including all invitations, cervical cytologies and cervical histopathologies in Sweden. NKCx also has an internet-accessible real-time register that today covers 78% of the female population in Sweden and is being expanded nationally to be able to provide an on-line quality assurance support for all healthcare providers in Sweden.

The main strategy for quality development of NKCx is to perform systematic national audits in case-control formats, with subsequent quantification of the impact of various possible quality-improving measures (in terms of for example Relative Risks, Population Attributable Proportions and Number of Expected Additionally Prevented Cases). These estimates are then presented to those who are responsible for the screening program in the various regions of the country.

The governance of the national registry for cervical cancer prevention is a steering committee and includes the regional process leaders and an interdisciplinary team of experts.