More clinics to offer FREE Pap smear screening

As part of its efforts to raise awareness of cervical cancer this month, the Singapore Cancer Society (SCS) has widened its free Pap smear screening network.

The voluntary welfare organisation has roped in 136 clinics to screen all female Singaporeans and Permanent Residents aged 25 to 69 years who are, or have been, sexually active.

The society aims to screen more than 4,500 women during this year's Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.

Cervical cancer, which was once the second most common cancer among women for the five-year period from 1968, is currently ranked ninth.

The SCS said that with increased public awareness and easy accessibility to screening services, the incidence rate has decreased from 18 women in 100,000 between 1968 and 1972, to 7.5 women in 100,000 between 2006 and 2010.

Despite the decrease, cervical cancer still strikes some 200 women each year on average and claims 70 lives.

The society said this cancer is highly preventable and curable when detected in its early stages.

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