HPV Test with Pap for Women 30 and Over

A new test called DNAwithPap combines a DNA test for the human papillomavirus (HPV) with a Pap test to help doctors determine which patients are at extremely low risk for cervical cancer and which need to be monitored more closely. The test has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

HPV has been shown to be the cause of cervical cancer. The American Cancer Society has recently recommended that the combination of HPV DNA testing for high-risk HPV types, together with a Pap test, be considered as an alternative for the routine screening of women age 30 and over. Studies have shown that this testing combination provides a very high certainty that a woman with a normal Pap result who is HPV-negative is at low risk for having or developing high-grade cervical disease or cancer in the near term.

DNAwithPap combines a standard Pap test with the Hybrid Capture 2HPV DNA test of Digene Corp. (Gaithersburg, MD, USA). This test detects the 13 key cancer-associated HPV types. Dr. Attila Lorincz, Ph.D., senior vice president and chief scientific officer for Digene, explained that the breakpoint of age 30 is used because at this age, women are less likely to have HPV infection but more likely to harbor persistent infection with high-risk HPV.

"With HPV testing I can be very confident, and so can my patients, that a negative screening result is clinically meaningful for assessing risk. We just haven't had this confidence before,” said Maureen Killackey, M.D., associate clinical professor at Columbia University (New York, NY, USA).




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