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women But average danger of cervical cancer can now safely Behaviour self-test for human being papillomavirus (hpv) at home, bypassing traditional, often inconvenient, clinic examinations. This important development was announced by the American cancer Society (ACS) on Thursday.
The first home screening test for HPV, developed by Teal Health and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May, uses a simple vaginal swab. This method eliminates the need for the speculum-based examination typically performed in a clinical setting, after which the samples are sent to a certified laboratory for analysis.
This step addresses a major barrier to screening, as traditional speculum examinations can be uncomfortable or even painful. Dr. Dianne Harper of the University of Michigan, who has researched the effectiveness of vaginal swabs, said earlier this year that “half of women diagnosed with cervical cancer in the United States have not had a screening test in the past ten years.”
Published in CA – A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, these new guidelines are expected to “help improve compliance with screening and reduce cervical cancer risk,” said co-author Dr. Robert Smith, senior vice president of the ACS.
Updated recommendations state that speculum examinations are preferred, but self-collected vaginal specimens are acceptable.
The ACS says that when self-collected samples are HPV-negative, retesting is recommended every three years, while negative HPV tests should be repeated every five years.
The ACS recommends average-risk patients begin cervical cancer screening at age 25 and get tested for high-risk HPV strains — so-called primary HPV testing — every five years until age 65. At that time, screening may stop, unless the last few tests have been negative.
The ACS says that while cervical cancer screening programs have reduced the incidence of the disease by more than half since the mid-1970s, more than 13,000 cases will be diagnosed in the US this year and more than 4,000 people will die from the disease.
A vaginal swab test was approved in May 2024 by Roche ROGS for use by patients in doctors’ offices.
The guideline authors say HPV vaccination before age 17, such as Merck’s MRK.N Gardasil, is associated with a 90 percent reduction in cervical cancer risk.