New advanced DNA test could make pap smears obsolete

Lufkin, TX

Annual pap smears could soon move to medical history books. Dr. Kay Carter said the new advanced dna test could save women's lives. "It can tell whether the DNA is high risk or low risk DNA for the HPV virus," said Dr. Carter.

She said the DNA test will make gynecologists' jobs easier. That is because it is a one step screening process

"If a woman has a high risk HPV virus then we will automatically go directly to biopsies and test that gives us more accurate information than the pap smear screen does," said Dr. Carter.

Dr. Carter believes most women get an annual pap smear out of routine and don't really understand its purpose. "I don't think that women classically understand the pap smear and why we have to do it," said Dr. Carter. She said the new DNA test makes it easier to understand that there is a virus that causes cervical cancer and women need to be checked for that virus.

Women over 30 could drop the annual pap smear and instead get a DNA test every three, five or ten years. The women we talked to said the pap smear does not bother them. "It's better to be safe than sorry, waiting three years is a long time, once a year is pretty accurate," said Becca Tatum, patient.

"You're going to have to come in for a yearly exam anyways, a breast exam, a pelvic exam so you mine as well get the pap smear done while you are," said Wendy Burger, patient.

Dr. Carter said over time, the DNA test will also cut yearly medical expenses.

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DNA test could detect cervical cancer early: study

LONDON (Reuters) - A DNA test for the virus that causes cervical cancer helps detect potentially dangerous lesions earlier than the commonly used pap smear technique, Dutch researchers said on Thursday.

The test could mean fewer screenings for women and ensure that they receive earlier treatment for lesions that might lead to cancer, they said in the journal Lancet.

"It is a better test because you pick up more lesions," Chris Meijer, a pathologist at VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, said in a telephone interview. "And because you pick them up earlier, you have more time to treat the women."

In a pap smear, doctors scrape cells from the cervix and examine them under a microscope for abnormalities that could indicate precancerous lesions. The DNA test screens for evidence of infection by high-risk types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause cervical cancer.

The Dutch study suggests the DNA test is better at indicating which women are at risk of precancerous lesions and should therefore have a biopsy, Meijer said.

"When you are HPV positive (in the test), the likelihood you have precancerous lesions is quite high," he said. "A (pap smear) is not sensitive enough to detect all the lesions."

Cervical cancer is caused by the HPV virus spread through sexual transmission and is the second most common type of cancer in women.

Merck and Co's. Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix vaccines protect people against HPV infection. The tumors kill about 300,000 each year, mostly in developing countries. Continued...

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