Cancer Test Study

Cervical Cancer Test Not Recommended Enough

By Paul Simao

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Some U.S. doctors are still not recommending regular Pap tests for their patients, putting these women at risk of dying from cervical cancer, according to a U.S. government study released on Tuesday.

Pap tests can detect abnormalities in the cells of the cervix, often before they become cancerous. Women who have had sexual intercourse typically are urged to get screened at least once every three years.

Upward of 80 percent of women follow these testing guidelines. But some patients as well as their doctors continue to be unaware of the importance of getting the test, public health officials say.

When the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from 1,502 women who had not had a recent Pap test despite visiting a doctor in the previous year, it found that about 87 percent said their doctor had not recommended one.

The women cited the lack of a recommendation as a top reason for not getting tested, according to the CDC survey, which was conducted in 2000 and published in the May 2005 issue of the Journal of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

"We are still losing too many lives because cervical cancer is preventable and curable, if detected early," said Steven Coughlin, an epidemiologist in the CDC's division of cancer prevention and control and the lead researcher of the study.

"Increased physician recommendations could help to significantly increase Pap screenings in the United States," Coughlin said.

An estimated 10,370 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and 3,710 will die of the disease this year.

The CDC study also found that doctors were less likely to recommend the test when a patient was an immigrant.

Immigrants and women who have never or rarely had Pap tests are targets of an early-detection breast and cervical cancer program funded by the CDC that provides these tests as well as mammograms to low-income women with inadequate health care insurance.

Pap tests are a valuable tool in cancer detection but they are not fail-safe. For instance, adenocarcinoma of the cervix, a cancer caused by a strain of the human papilloma virus, is difficult to detect with the test.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.