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UK medical team to lead study into access to cervical screening after birth
Current UK guidance suggests women should wait for 12 weeks after they have given birth to be screened
A team of UK gynaecological oncology doctors have been awarded £300,000 to run a research study aimed at improving the uptake of cervical cancer screening among women who have recently given birth.
The team, based at the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, will get people’s views on how to improve the take up on cervical screening and access to services.
While cervical screening is safe during pregnancy and may be needed, it is often delayed until afterwards, particularly if a woman’s screening was up-to-date and normal prior to pregnancy.
Current guidance from the national screening programme suggests women should wait for 12 weeks after they have given birth to be screened.
But women and GP practices told Dr Jo Morrison, consultant gynaecological oncologist at the NHS trust, and Dr Holly Baker-Rand and Dr Becky Newhouse, both specialty registrars and clinical fellows, that it may be easier to get this done at their regular six-week post-birth appointment. This would avoid coming back for a second appointment when women are busy and have other priorities.
It is not the first time the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has been involved in cervical screening research with Morrison and former Musgrove postgraduate doctor, Dr Sarah Coleridge, winning a national Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust Innovation Award for a project to improve the take up on cervical screening in young women who’d just had a baby.
One of the ideas that was generated on the back of Dr Coleridge’s project, largely from the women she spoke to, was that they would prefer to have had a postnatal follow-up smear at their six-week GP check-up.
“Current guidance says that a cervical smear test can only be done 12 weeks after a woman has given birth,” Dr Morrison explained.
“But we’ve listened to the feedback from women and investigated why the recommendation is to delay to 12 weeks.
“We found that it was based on just one very old study, involving only a few people, at a time when smear testing wasn’t as advanced as it is today, and before we tested for HPV.
“So we wanted to carry out research based on the idea that new mums might find it easier to get their screening done at that one appointment, rather than having to make another appointment six weeks later – much easier for our GP practices and the patients themselves, who would be less likely to miss it.
“Before we begin the ‘Postnatal Instead of Normally-timed Cervical Screening’ study – or PINCS for short – we are running a study to check women’s view to make sure that this is absolutely something that women would want us to look into.
“If our study shows no difference in the quality of testing at six rather than 12 weeks, this could be offered to women earlier. Obviously, those who aren’t ready by six weeks would be free to delay the test.”
Morrison said her team would check the acceptability of testing with a urine test, rather than a normal smear test, and whether this is something that women might find easier.
“We’re calling this first part of the study, ‘Pre-PINCS’, where we’re testing what women think about the idea, and whether they would be willing to have a smear done six weeks after giving birth. If the reaction is positive, then we hope to get a full clinical study up and running,” she added.
“Pre-PINCS has involved a questionnaire given to women who’ve given birth within the past five years. We will also offer conversations with a few women who have given birth recently or are currently pregnant, to find out in more depth about their views on cervical screening in general, and any ideas they might have for the study.
“The only way we can change the national screening programme would be to prove that this is acceptable and as accurate as delaying screening to 12 weeks.”
Dr Becky Newhouse, who has been working as a clinical fellow in gynae-oncology in Somerset for the last couple of years, said she was pleased to be involved in this piece of research.
“We’ve already done some preliminary work with women to find out about the challenges they’ve faced in getting a smear test, which is a good first step,” she said.
“We know that pregnancy and caring for a newborn is a very busy time, so it’s natural that a smear test may not be at the top of a to-do list. But this means a lot of women are out-of-date with their smear tests in pregnancy and we want to do everything we can to make it easy for them to get their test – the six-week GP appointment is ideal in so many ways.”
She added: “Sadly, cervical cancer is most prevalent in the age range around the usual childbearing age so we want to make sure smear testing is as accessible as possible for that group of women so they can get pre-cancerous changes detected as early as possible so they can be easily treated and stop them developing a cancer.”
Ovarian cancer cells quickly activate survival responses after PARP inhibitor treatment, and a lung cancer drug could help block this, research suggests.
PARP inhibitors are a common treatment for ovarian cancer, particularly in tumours with faulty DNA repair. They stop cancer cells fixing DNA damage, which leads to cell death, but many tumours later stop responding.
Researchers identified a way cancer cells may survive PARP inhibitor treatment from the outset, pointing to a potential way to block that response. A Mayo Clinic team found ovarian cancer cells rapidly switch on a pro-survival programme after exposure to PARP inhibitors. A key driver is FRA1, a transcription factor (a protein that turns genes on and off) that helps cancer cells adapt and avoid death.
The team then tested whether brigatinib, a drug approved for certain lung cancers, could block this response and boost the effect of PARP inhibitors. Brigatinib was chosen because it inhibits multiple signalling pathways involved in cancer cell survival.
In laboratory studies, combining brigatinib with a PARP inhibitor was more effective than either treatment alone. Notably, the effect was seen in cancer cells but not normal cells, suggesting a more targeted approach.
Brigatinib also appeared to act in an unexpected way. Rather than working through the usual DNA repair routes, it shut down two signalling molecules, FAK and EPHA2, that aggressive ovarian cancer cells rely on. FAK and EPHA2 are proteins that relay survival signals inside cells. Blocking both at once weakened the cells’ ability to adapt and resist treatment, making them more vulnerable to PARP inhibitors.
Tumours with higher levels of FAK and EPHA2 responded better to the drug combination. Other data link high levels of these molecules to more aggressive disease, pointing to potential benefit in harder-to-treat cases.
Arun Kanakkanthara, an oncology investigator at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “This work shows that drug resistance does not always emerge slowly over time; cancer cells can activate survival programmes very early after treatment begins.”
John Weroha, a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic and a senior author of the study, said: “From a clinical perspective, resistance remains one of the biggest challenges in treating ovarian cancer. By combining mechanistic insights from Dr Kanakkanthara’s laboratory with my clinical experience, this preclinical work supports the strategy of targeting resistance early, before it has a chance to take hold. This strategy could improve patient outcomes.”
Nighttime temperatures during pregnancy may be linked to a higher chance of an autism diagnosis in children, a recent study suggests.
The research tracked nearly 295,000 mother-child pairs in Southern California from 2001 to 2014 and linked warmer overnight temperatures with higher risk in early and late pregnancy.
Children of mothers exposed to higher than typical nighttime temperatures during weeks one to 10 of pregnancy had a 15 per cent higher risk of an autism diagnosis.
Exposure during weeks 30 to 37 was linked to a 13 per cent higher risk.
Lead author David Luglio, a post-doctoral fellow at Tulane University, said: “A key takeaway is that we identified specific windows when a mother and her developing child can be most affected by exposures to higher nighttime temperatures.
“This is critical and hopefully can help mothers prepare accordingly.”
The study is described as the first to examine how temperature may affect fetal neurodevelopment, the process by which a baby’s brain and nervous system form during pregnancy.
Extreme temperatures linked to increased risk were classified as above the 90th percentile, meaning 3.6°F hotter than average, and the 99th percentile, 5.6°F above average.
The association held even after researchers accounted for factors such as neighbourhood conditions, vegetation and fine-particle air pollution.
The study could not account for other factors such as access to air conditioning. Researchers did not find the same association with daytime temperatures, potentially because people spend more time away from home during the day.
“Heat waves are becoming more frequent, and people may only think of the dangers of daytime heat exposure,” said Mostafijur Rahman, assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University.
“These results indicate a strong association between high nighttime temperatures during pregnancy and autism risk in children and show that we need to think about exposure to heat around the clock.”
The study did not examine how higher temperatures at night might affect prenatal development, though Luglio said it is possible that warmer nights disrupt sleep for pregnant mothers.
Previous research has suggested insufficient sleep during pregnancy may be linked to a higher risk of neurocognitive delays in children.
“Extreme heat exposure during pregnancy has been linked to a range of adverse health outcomes, including prenatal neurodevelopment delays and complications with an embryo’s development of a central nervous system,” Luglio said.
“The goal of our study was to specifically explore the link between prenatal heat exposure and autism diagnoses for the first time.”
Kindbody has launched a fertility platform integrating AI with clinical care and patient support for employers and health plans.
The platform will enter a pilot with select Kindbody employer clients in 2026, covering over three million lives, ahead of wider availability in 2027.
Building on the company’s clinical model, the platform aims to improve outcomes and cost efficiency across family-building journeys. It connects Kindbody-owned clinics, partner clinics and an integrated clinical app.
The app offers virtual care across conception, pregnancy and reproductive health, extending through the menopause transition.
Launch features include updates in medication management, third-party reproduction, adoption, pregnancy, men’s health and global programme design.
David Stern, chief executive of Kindbody, said: “With our next-generation fertility platform, Kindbody is redefining what comprehensive, intelligent and affordable family-building care looks like for employers, health plans and patients.
“By unifying best-in-class clinical care, AI-driven intelligence and whole-person support, we are making it easier and more cost-effective for more people to build the families they envision.”
Kindbody has expanded access via its national network of IVF centres, including IVIRMA, Inception Fertility and Ivy Fertility.
A new Fertility Medication Portal is designed to streamline authorisations so medicines can be dispensed on time, giving patients visibility from prescription to coverage, pharmacy fulfilment and delivery tracking.
Through KindMan, men’s health education, digital resources and integrated clinical care are expanding, including hormone management programmes.
Services cover andropause (age-related testosterone decline), erectile dysfunction, low testosterone and other male reproductive conditions.
Specialist fertility care includes semen analysis, diagnostic testing, male hormone panels, genetic testing, surgical sperm extraction and sperm cryopreservation.
Launching in the second quarter, a pregnancy support app will act as a digital companion for expecting and new parents, with resources, interactive tools and clinical assessments to identify social drivers of health and mental health needs during pregnancy and beyond.
Kindbody’s physician-led menopause programme provides consultations with board-certified obstetricians and gynaecologists to diagnose, treat and manage menopausal symptoms, including hormone replacement therapy where appropriate, with support from nutritionists, mental health therapists and pelvic floor specialists.
AI and analytics will be embedded across the care journey. An AI care navigator will guide employees from benefit activation through intake, triage and scheduling.
Tools will track benefits and treatment plans, showing coverage and expected out-of-pocket costs at each step.
AI-supported scribing will assist clinicians with documentation, and a predictor tool will estimate a patient’s likelihood of having a baby across different treatment paths.
In 2027, Kindbody plans a savings model for eligible large employers that it says will guarantee lower total fertility spend while improving clinical efficiency and patient experience.
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