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Article Excerpt
A Pap smear has long been a part of a woman's routine health care. The Pap can detect cell changes that may lead to cancer of the cervix, the lower part of the uterus, or womb. Women age 30 and older can now opt to get an additional test along with their Pap smear to increase the odds of detecting abnormal, or precancerous, cells before they turn into cervical cancer. This test checks a sample of cervical cells for the presence of the genetic material (DNA) of human papillomaviruses (HPVs).
"One of the high risk factors for having cervical cancer is a persistent HPV infection," says Thomas Simms, a Food and Drug Administration biologist who evaluated the HPV DNA test. "Greater than 95 percent of cervical cancers have detectable HPV DNA in them."
In March 2003, the FDA approved the HPV DNA test to be used simultaneously with the Pap test to screen for cervical cancer in women age 30 and older. The Hybrid Capture 2 High-Risk HPV DNA, made by Digene Corp. of Gaithersburg, Md., was initially approved in 2000, but only as a follow-up test for women who had abnormal or inconclusive Pap tests.
The Tests and What They...
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