Meet the HPV test that would replace the PapanicolauLa Hora

A recent study has shown that there is a more effective method for the detection of precancerous lesions of the cervix of the uterus.

The uterus, also known as the uterus, is the female reproductive organ that houses the egg or zygote. his passage from the embryo to the fetus. When the pregnancy is over, the baby goes through a muscular structure like a door, called the cervix of the uterus.

It is in this pass that the cancer kills the most women in many middle and low income countries. economic activities, including Peru. Like any cancer, it is silent and causes no symptoms during its development.

The famous Papanicolau

It is considered that Papanicolaou test or cytology, George Papanicolaou, is able to reduce to 80% the mortality caused by cancer of the cervix. uterus in countries with high economic income, countries in which this disease has a very low prevalence.

Human papillomavirus

Over the past 40 years, research has determined that 99.7% of cases of uterine cancer is caused by the infection of one of the oncogenic varieties of human papillomavirus (HPV). With this in mind, studies have focused not only on the development of a vaccine against this disease (put on sale in 2006 and available for free for girls in Peru since 2011), but also on the establishment of a vaccine against the disease. a method of early detection of this disease. cancer that discovers the presence of HPV in the cervix of the uterus.

For this reason, over the past two decades have developed molecular genetic processes that analyze the cervical mucus in search of an oncogenic variety of HPV (Human Papilloma Virus)) . They have been available since 1997. However, it is only in 2011 that they have been accepted by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use with the Pap smear in the United States. the main diagnosis of the disease; and since 2014, it has been established as the only HPV detection method. The problem is that many health organizations have expressed reluctance to adopt this type of test as the only method because no study has been done that directly confronted the old, effective and reliable Papanicolaou with the modern HPV test for see what is better.

A study certifies that HPV is superior to Papanicolau

Published in July 2017 in the Journal of the Medical Association of North America North (JAMA) by Canadian researchers, the HPV Focal study is the first to face both methods and concludes that the HPV test is superior to Papanicolaou in the detection of precancerous lesions of the cervix uterus in women over 30 years old.

made to Canadian women between the ages of 25 and 65, randomly drawn 19,000 of them into two groups: those who had Pap smear at first – and if that was normal, they repeated it at two years and four years – and those who underwent the HPV test at the beginning and four years later.

The data analysis showed that none of the methods is perfect. At the end of the four-year study, 22 of the women who had an early negative HPV test had precancerous lesions. On the other hand, 54 of those who were found to have a negative smear at the beginning of labor, developed the same precancerous lesions. The study's authors conclude that the HPV test is able to detect pre-cancerous lesions earlier than Papanicolaou, and that it could be used as a replacement.