New cervical cancer screening guidelines from the U.S. Preventative Task Force suggest that women between the ages of 30 and 65 should receive a pap smear at the same time they’re tested for HPV, or human papillomavirus.
In other words, if the HPV test comes back negative and the pap smear returns a normal test result, the medical guidelines indicate that women should wait five years before receiving both tests simultaneously again.
Although the U.S. Preventative Task Force already released a rough draft of the cervical cancer screening guidelines back in October of 2011, those guidelines were incomplete since the Task Force admitted that it had too little information to assess the benefits and potential dangers of HPV testing.
Since then, a Dutch study found that women over 30 who test negative for HPV and receive a normal pap smear test are at a very low risk for cervical cancer over the following three to five years. Researchers also believe that women under the age of 30 should not receive HPV tests, since individuals in this age group can normally clear an HPV infection using only their immune systems.
Dr. Leo Twiggs, a gynecology professor at the University of Miami School of Medicine, said that he’s pleased to see HPV testing added to cervical cancer screening guidelines. According to Dr. Twiggs, HPV tests represent a “more precise way” of identifying the presence or absence of cervical cancer.
Additional Guidelines for Cervical Cancer Screenings
Additional new cervical cancer screening guidelines included in the announcement from the Task Force mirrored the existing guidelines. Regardless of sexual history, women should receive cervical cancer screenings every three years between the ages of 21 and 65, unless they also receive HPV tests alongside pap smears. This lengthens the testing interval to five years.
Cervical cancer screenings are not recommended for women under the age of 21. The reason being that the screening can actually be more of a detriment than a benefit, and women in this age group have been statistically proven to rarely develop cervical cancer.
The guidelines also state that women over the age of 65 can skip cervical cancer screenings, so long as they’ve been screened in the past and don’t have any special conditions that could increase cervical cancer risk. Women who have had their cervix removed, and who have no history of precancerous lesions or cervical cancer, can also exempt themselves from cervical cancer screenings.
The Dangers of Excess Screening
At this point, you may be wondering: “Why not test for cervical cancer more frequently, just to be on the safe side?” The answer lies in the fact that screening for cervical cancer too frequently may result in the detection and subsequent testing and treatment of precancerous lesions that often disappear by themselves. Unfortunately, the methods used to treat these lesions, and cervical cancer itself, often lead to pregnancy complications such as preterm delivery.
The guidelines offered by the Task Force unfortunately do not differentiate between women who have received an HPV vaccine and women who have not. For now, the guidelines suggest that all women adhere to the same screening recommendations regardless of their vaccination history. In the future, the guidelines may suggest more infrequent cervical cancer screenings for women who have received HPV vaccinations.
New Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines: The Bottom Line
The United States Preventative Task Force recently revised its recommendations and hence, their medical guidelines concerning cervical cancer screenings. According to their newly revised guidelines, women over the age of 30 should receive a pap smear and HPV test every five years.
The full text of the guidelines can be viewed in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
