Med Mal News

On March 15, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (Task Force) released new guidelines for cervical cancer screenings, challenging the long-held belief that women should undergo a Pap test every year. The new guidelines recommend no screenings until a woman reaches the age of 21, then tests every three years until age 65. For women between 30 and 65 years old, the frequency can be diminished to every five years, if a human papillomavirus (HPV) screening is done in conjunction with the Pap smear test. Women over 65 need not be tested at all, so long as they have had adequate screenings prior to age 65. These new recommendations do not apply to women who have received a diagnosis of a high-grade precancerous cervical lesion or cervical cancer, women with in-utero exposure to diethylstilbestrol, or women whose immune systems are compromised.

A primary goal of the new guidelines is to diminish the problem of over-diagnosis, which can cause needless anxiety for women who are told they have an abnormal test result. According to the Task Force, the treatments that sometimes follow a falsely suspect test result are often unnecessary, and can do more harm than good. For example, cold-knife conization and loop excision procedures have been known to cause women to suffer pre-term births or miscarriages. The study's authors concluded that these potential harms outweighed any advantages yielded by more frequent testing for signs of cervical cancer. For more recommendations and further information about the Task Force investigation's findings, go to: www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf11/cervcancer/cervcancerrs.htm#summary.