New Cervical Cancer Test Detects Disease Significantly Better Than HPV Test and Pap Smear

So, the natural question here is, what’s an epigenetics-based test? Instead of looking for patterns in DNA’s genetic code that suggest the presence of the HPV virus, the epigenetic test looks at the naturally-occurring chemical markers that appear at the top of DNA. To put it into perspective, while the new test detected 100% of the eight types of invasive cervical cancers that developed in women involved in the study, the pap smear only detected 25% of the cancers, and the HPV test detected 50%, according to the study, which was published in the International Journal of Medicine.

Lead researcher and Queen Mary Professor Attila Lorincz — who helped develop the world’s first HPV test in the 1980s — called the results of the new cervical cancer test an “enormous development.” Dr. Lorincz said this “is the first time that anyone has proven the key role of epigenetics in the development of a major solid cancer using data from patients in the clinic. Epigenetic changes are what this cervical cancer test picks up and is exactly why it works so well.”

The downside of this new test is that it likely won’t be available for widespread use for a few more years, until more testing can be done. Plus, the new test did not pick up 100% of abnormal results that suggest a woman will get cervical cancer. The study also looked at a subset of 257 women who had HPV, and found that the test found 93% of pre-cancerous lesions in those woman – compared to 86% found with a combination of the pap smear and HPV test, and 61% detected using just the pap test. So while this research shows the new test may be a better indicator for the 257 women who had HPV, it’s not a perfect option.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force released new guidelines that said women over 30 can safely screen for cervical cancer with an HPV test every five years instead of a pap smear every three years.

Dr. Paul Blumenthal, Director of the Stanford Gynecology Service, explained the difference between the two tests to SurvivorNet at the time. “Pap smears involve cytology, which is basically just scraping cells off the cervix, putting them on a slide, and then looking at them under a microscope. HPV tests involve taking a sample … [and] looking just for the virus in or around the cervix … What we’ve learned is that the HPV test is more sensitive at detecting cancer.”

Since almost all cervical cancers are caused by the HPV virus, the U.S. guidelines now suggest women over 30 may skip pap smears in favor of just the HPV test. For women ages 21 to 29, though, a pap smear is still recommended. There’s no word yet on when, or if, this new epigenetic test will replace both the HPV test and the pap smear, but study authors did claim that if it is fully implemented — it would reduce the number of times women have to see a doctor, and be a cheaper screening option.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

---