In the first at-home test for the human papillomavirus (HPV), a woman takes a vaginal swab herself, avoiding the traditional speculum exam in the clinic, and then sends it to the lab for analysis.
The test was developed by Tel Health and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration last May.
Dr. Diane Harper of the University of Michigan, who studied the effectiveness of vaginal swabs, said earlier this year that “half of women with cervical cancer in the United States have not been screened in the past 10 years,” for reasons including that speculum exams can be uncomfortable or even painful.
The American Cancer Society’s Senior Vice President and co-author of the study, Dr. Robert Smith, said in a statement that the new guidelines published in (CA) will help improve adherence to screening and reduce the risk of cervical cancer.
According to the updated recommendations, speculum examination remains the best, but self-collected vaginal samples are acceptable.
The American Cancer Society recommends repeat testing in 3 years if the results of the self-collected samples are negative, and repeat testing every 5 years if the speculum examination is performed and the results are negative.
The Society advises patients at average risk to begin cervical cancer screening at age 25 and undergo tests that detect high-risk strains of the virus every 5 years until age 65, at which point screening can be discontinued as long as the last tests were negative.
The Society noted that more than 13,000 cases of cervical cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, and more than 4,000 people will die from it, although screening programs have reduced the incidence by more than half since the mid-1970s.
