Cervical Cancer Health Center

Guidelines Suggest Less Frequent Screening for Cervical Cancer

What About HPV Screening? continued...

One main reason is that while HPV is associated with later cancer, many HPV infections resolve on their own. A positive test could lead to a lot of unnecessary further testing and treatment in women who likely wouldn't develop cancer as a result of the HPV.

For women over 30, we're not recommending for or against. "We just don't have enough data," says Wanda Nicholson, MD, a member of the task force.

"We do know of ongoing clinical trials that will hopefully allow better decisions," says Nicholson, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Medicine. 

Existing guidelines from the American Cancer Society say HPV screening can be performed in women age 30 and older along with a Pap test every three years. But that group is updating its recommendations and organizations plan to coordinate their guidelines into a common set of recommendations by next year.

Meanwhile, ongoing trials in Europe and Canada could lead to updated recommendations on the use of HPV screening alone or along with Pap tests in women over 30 by next year.

The task force didn't address the issue of HPV vaccination, only how to screen for cervical cancer.

Who Should Get Screened?

All women 21 and older at average risk for cervical cancer should be screened every three years, the USPSTF says. The issue of whether to include HPV testing is still up to individual doctors and patients. Women over 65, and those who've had a total hysterectomy, should not be screened, the group said.

But experts stress that further reductions in cervical cancer incidence and death depend on more women getting screened. As many as half of all women are not regularly screened for cervical cancer, and their numbers are over-represented among low-income, minority, and less-educated groups.

"We think half of all cases in the U.S. occur because women are not getting screened. Not because screening is not good enough," LeFevre says. Even though less frequent screening is being recommended, screening is still critical.