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New
Guidelines for
Cervical Cancer Screening
While regular
screening for cervical cancer is strongly recommended for women
between the ages of 21 and 65, some women can safely discontinue
regular screening or be screened less often, says the U.S. Preventive
Services Task Force.
The task force says the harm of
continued routine screening, such as false positive tests and
invasive procedures, outweighs the benefits of regular screening
for women aged 65 and over who have had regular normal Pap smears.
And there is no evidence that annual
screening achieves better outcomes than screening every three
years in young women who have had at least two normal annual screenings,
the task force says.
Pap testing followed by appropriate
treatment can effectively prevent invasive cervical cancer by
detecting pre-cancerous lesions before they grow and spread, the
task force says.
Here are some other recommendations
from the task force, the nation's leading independent panel of
private-sector experts in prevention and primary care:
- Screening should start for women
three years after they begin sexual activity or at age 21, whichever
comes first.
- Screening is not recommended
for women who have had a total hysterectomy for a non-cancerous
condition.
- There is insufficient evidence
to recommend for or against new technologies such as liquid-based
cytology instead of conventional Pap smears to screen for cervical
cancer.
- There also is insufficient evidence
to recommend for or against the use of human papillomavirus
testing as a primary screening tool for cervical cancer.
More information
You can learn more about cervical
cancer on here
or the information sheet at the National
Cancer Institute.
Reference
Source 101
For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick
Prevention Resources".
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