New Tests Help Physicians Read Pap Smears

Two new approaches might make it easier for physicians to more accurately read a Pap smear.

A Pap smear is a sampling of cells taken from the cervix that helps physicians detect cervical cancer, which affects some 15,000 American women annually.

"The Pap smear has been an effective screening tool that has saved the lives of thousands of women," says Dr. Raymond Kaufman, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. "Pap smears alone detect between 85 and 90 percent of all cervical cancer cases."

But because of the large number of cells taken during a Pap smear, tests can sometimes be misread. Two new approaches, the Automated Screening System and the Thin Prep System, have been developed to reduce that risk.

"The automated screening system allows physicians to take a smear and put it through computer screening," says Dr. Kaufman.

"Procedures are set up to weed out those smears that have abnormal cells."

Using the Thin Prep System, cells are prepared in a solution that distributes them more evenly along the smear, making it easier for physicians to find pre-cancerous cells.

Annual Pap smears also cut down on the number of misreadings. It is recommended that women have a Pap smear every year beginning at age 18, or when they become sexually active.

"Women who have pre-cancerous cells in the cervix have a better chance of finding out if they come in every year," Dr. Kaufman says. "The likelihood that someone with abnormal cells would have three consecutive readings where those cells were not found is less than 1 percent. Those are very good odds."

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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