BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A new screening test
for cervical cancer that spotted the virus 95 percent of the time -- compared to
55 percent for the traditional screening -- could replace the Pap smear in a few
years, experts say. And women won't need to test as often according to
researchers at McGill University in Montreal.
"We've had the Pap test for over 50 years and it's
high time it be replaced by technology that's more robust," said Eduardo Franco,
director of McGill's division of cancer epidemiology, who led the study.
Franco said some feared the new human papilloma virus
(HPV) test would result in more false readings, creating anxiety and requiring
more follow-up testing. In the study, there were only slightly more false
positives for the HPV tests (6 percent) than the Pap smears (3 percent).
HPV is a common sexually transmitted disease.
Infections are mostly in young women and most disappear on their own. The HPV
test looks for the high-risk viruses that can cause cervical cancer if the
infection persists. Like the Pap, it uses cells scraped from the cervix, the
lower part of the uterus.
Because the Pap test misses about 50 percent of the
cases, doctors use frequent testing to catch the slow developing cancer at its
earliest, most treatable stages.
The HPV test has been available in the U.S. since
2000 and was first used for inconclusive Pap tests. Now women over 30 can get a
HPV test ¡ª but only along with a Pap ¡ª and wait three years to be tested again
if both tests are negative.
More recently, scientists have been studying whether
the HPV test can be used alone and whether it can prolong the intervals between
exams. Debbie Saslow, director of breast and gynecologic cancer for the American
Cancer Society, said evidence from a number of studies supports using the HPV
test in place of a Pap.
(Agencies)
