HPV Test Bests Pap Smear in Studies

"Even though Pap has worked, we have a test that's better than Pap, and in the coming years, we can switch to HPV and possibly screen every three or maybe even every five years and get the same level of protection," said study author Dr. Marie-Helene Mayrand, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and social and preventive medicine at the University of Montreal. Mayrand was a doctoral candidate at McGill University in Montreal at the time of the study.

The second study, done in Sweden, included more than 12,000 women in their 30s who were randomized to receive either a conventional Pap test alone or an HPV test and a Pap test.

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The researchers found abnormal cervical changes in 51 percent more women who had both tests than in the Pap group alone. In subsequent screenings, about 40 percent fewer precancerous lesions were found in the women who'd been screened with both tests compared to women who'd had the Pap test alone, which suggests that overdiagnosis from the HPV test is not as big an issue as some experts had feared.

"Adding HPV testing to Pap testing in routine cervical screening gives a longer protection against the severe precursor lesions of cervical cancer compared to just Pap testing," said study co-author Dr. Joakim Dillner, a professor of virology at Lund University and Malmo University Hospital in Malmo, Sweden.

"In women 30 years of age and older, it is likely to eventually replace the Pap test. The major benefit of the HPV test is that it, compared to Pap testing, enables lengthening the screening interval substantially," Dillner said.

Several questions remain, however. One is how the HPV test compares to the liquid-based Pap test, as neither of these studies used the newer test. And, Saslow pointed out, an emerging group of young women will have been vaccinated against HPV, and it's not clear how that might affect the reliability of the HPV test in the future.

More information

For more on preventing cervical cancer, visit the National Cancer Institute.