Women's Conditions . At a press conference on Tuesday, study authors said that the addition of the new test to conventional screening methods offers many possibilities for improving cervical cancer detection rates, including giving women the option of collecting their own vaginal samples in a doctor's office.
Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide.
But a large body of evidence suggests that HPV is present in virtually all of the most life-threatening cases of cervical cancer, suggesting that testing for HPV could help catch more cancers early on. His study found that having women collect their own vaginal specimens with a special kit for HPV testing was as effective in detecting the virus as standard Pap smears, in which the physician obtained the samples. Wright, of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, says the study shows that the new test has the potential to save lives, particularly in areas or populations where women have limited access to medical services. Wright and colleagues examined 1,415 previously unscreened women aged 35-65 from a township outside Cape Town, South Africa. The 8,554 women were examined by visual inspection of the cervix if they had abnormal findings on either a conventional Pap smear or one of two other Pap smear methods.