Mailed Self-Collection Kits Increase Rates of Cervical Cancer Screening

WEDNESDAY, June 11, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- Mailed self-collection (SC) kits may increase participation in cervical cancer screening, according to a study published online June 6 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Jane R. Montealegre, Ph.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues compared the effectiveness of mailed SC kits, with and without patient navigation, versus telephone reminders for increasing cervical cancer screening. The analysis included 2,474 individuals overdue for cervical cancer screening and randomly assigned to a telephone reminder (TR) for clinic-based screening (828 individuals), TR with mailed SC (828 individuals), or TR with mailed SC and patient navigation (818 individuals).The researchers found that at six months, 17.4 percent in the TR group, 41.1 percent in the SC group, and 46.6 percent in the SC with patient navigation group participated in cervical cancer screening. Relative participation was 2.36 times higher for SC and 2.68 times higher for SC with patient navigation (screening difference of 23.7 percent for SC and 29.2 percent for SC with patient navigation compared with TR)."The large increase in cervical cancer screening participation using SC compared to TR suggests that SC should be considered in safety-net settings with suboptimal cervical cancer screening coverage," the authors write.Abstract/Full Text.Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter