the HPV test is more effective than the smear

"From 25 to 65 years, a smear every three years." The recommendation is well known to French women. Indeed, this examination makes it possible to detect the precancerous lesions of the neck of the uterus. But it may soon become obsolete, in favor of another examination: that of human papillomavirus (HPV) screening.

Currently, screening smear works everywhere in the same way. Cells are taken from the cervix and badyzed. Lesions are sought. But this method has a limit: the presence of papillomavirus is not measured. Persistent infection is responsible for 99.7% of cervical cancers.

60% more effective test

According to researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, However, there is another method, less painful and invasive than Pap smear (or Pap smear), and more effective for detecting cervical cancer: the screening of the human papillomavirus, which badyzes the cells found in the secretions badl and cervical

In their study published by the journal JAMA the researchers compared the effectiveness of the HPV test to that of cervical-uterine smear. Their trial was conducted between 2008 and 2016 with more than 19,000 Canadian women. Half had a Pap smear while the other had a HPV test. Participants who had a negative screening result were tested again 4 years later with the other screening method. Women who had been screened for HPV had a 60% lower risk of precancerous lesions than the other group.

In general, women who had a cervical smear were twice as likely to have abnormal cells. The HPV test resulted in 22 cases while the smear detected 52 women with abnormal cells.

"Our results show that the HPV test detects pre-cancerous lesions earlier for them to be removed and destroyed. before becoming cancerous, "says Dr. Gina Ogilvie, author of the study. "When the PAP test was introduced 50 years ago, it has drastically reduced the number of women dying from cervical cancer, but the HPV test can bring this number closer to zero," says the researcher. [19659003] The PAP test still used as first-line treatment in France

This study is not the first to highlight the effectiveness of the HPV test for early detection of cancer of the cervix. Further work has already been done in this direction and has inspired Australia, for example, which systematically uses this test to more effectively detect pre-cancerous cells.

In the United States, both methods are used in the context of cervical cancer screening, which is not yet the case in France, where the PAP test is still performed as a first-line test.