Combining a Pap test with a human papillomavirus (HPV) test can safely extend the interval between cervical cancer screenings from three years to five years in many women between the ages of 30-65, according to new recommendations.
If women opt for the Pap test alone, the new guidelines are similar to the old ones, recommending screening every three years.
A key addition to the new guidelines is the recommendation concerning HPV testing. Previously, researchers from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) said they didn’t have enough evidence to specifically recommend for or against the test. Now, if HPV tests and Pap tests are negative, women aged 30-65 can extend the cervical cancer screening interval to five years.
“People need to get screened, but they don’t need to do it too often,” says Virginia Moyer, MD, MPH, a professor of pediatrics at Baylor Medical College and chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which published an updated version of its 2003 recommendations online in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The American Cancer Society, the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and the American Society for Clinical Pathology also released new sets of guidelines that are nearly identical to those from the USPSTF.
The harms of more frequent screening — such as a greater chance of  abnormal test results that can lead to further, sometimes invasive testing — outweigh the benefits of early detection of slow-growing precancerous changes in the cervix, the authors of the guidelines conclude. Often, those precancerous changes resolve without any treatment. Persistent infection with certain types of HPV can lead to cervical cancer.
For more on New Cervical Screening Guidelines, go to BlackDoctor.org.

(Photo: Getty Images)