Cervical Cancer Treatment Update
http://www.pcwomensjournal.com/articles/121/1/Cervical-Cancer-Treatment-Update/Page1.html
Dr. Samuel Atkinson
Dr. Samuel AtkinsonCarolina Women's Physicians
By Dr. Samuel Atkinson
Published on 02/2/2010
Dr. Samuel Atkinson of Carolina Women's Physicians updates women on cervical cancer treatment.
January was cervical cancer awareness month, and thus an appropriate time to review the progress not only in finding and treating cervical cancer; but also the cause and prevention of cervical cancer.
The Papanicolaou smear was first described in the 1940’s by George Papanicolaou in New York City. Increasing awareness and use of the Pap smear soon led physicians to believe that if every woman obtained early and frequent “Pap smears” physicians could find cervical cancer early enough to cure the disease and to find cervical cancer in a pre-cancerous phase.
50 years later, a German professor announced that he had isolated a Human papilloma virus as the cause of cervical cancer (HPV).Rapidly; tests were developed to find the virus in women. Sexual contact is necessary for the virus to infect a woman. It had long been suspected that sex had something to do with contracting the disease. Soon it was discovered that there were a number of viruses in the Human papilloma virus (HPV) family. Further tests to screen women for these specific viruses were developed.
Since the turn of the millennium significant advances have been made in screening for the viruses and allowing pathologists and cytotechnologists to use these tests to more precisely guide the physician’s management. For decades the classical Pap smear frequently gave abnormal results (false positives) when patients indeed had no disease and yet it occasionally missed dangerous disease (false negatives).
Currently newer tests to improve the detection of the high risk viruses and pre-cancerous changes have been developed. Greenville Pathology is adding a new method to more accurately predict smears with high risk viruses as well as to reduce the number of false positives.
Great hope now exists that the development of vaccines against HPV will virtually eliminate the risk of cervical cancer from the dangerous HPV strains (16& 18). Two vaccines have been approved for women in the US, and one has also been approved for males. The target populations for vaccinations are children and young people under the age of 26.
Until the majority of susceptible women are vaccinated, the Pap smear will continue to be a necessary test. The availability of more accurate tests such as the Cervista HPV HR will be a great asset in cervical detection and management.
The Papanicolaou smear was first described in the 1940’s by George Papanicolaou in New York City. Increasing awareness and use of the Pap smear soon led physicians to believe that if every woman obtained early and frequent “Pap smears” physicians could find cervical cancer early enough to cure the disease and to find cervical cancer in a pre-cancerous phase.
50 years later, a German professor announced that he had isolated a Human papilloma virus as the cause of cervical cancer (HPV).Rapidly; tests were developed to find the virus in women. Sexual contact is necessary for the virus to infect a woman. It had long been suspected that sex had something to do with contracting the disease. Soon it was discovered that there were a number of viruses in the Human papilloma virus (HPV) family. Further tests to screen women for these specific viruses were developed.
Since the turn of the millennium significant advances have been made in screening for the viruses and allowing pathologists and cytotechnologists to use these tests to more precisely guide the physician’s management. For decades the classical Pap smear frequently gave abnormal results (false positives) when patients indeed had no disease and yet it occasionally missed dangerous disease (false negatives).
Currently newer tests to improve the detection of the high risk viruses and pre-cancerous changes have been developed. Greenville Pathology is adding a new method to more accurately predict smears with high risk viruses as well as to reduce the number of false positives.
Great hope now exists that the development of vaccines against HPV will virtually eliminate the risk of cervical cancer from the dangerous HPV strains (16& 18). Two vaccines have been approved for women in the US, and one has also been approved for males. The target populations for vaccinations are children and young people under the age of 26.
Until the majority of susceptible women are vaccinated, the Pap smear will continue to be a necessary test. The availability of more accurate tests such as the Cervista HPV HR will be a great asset in cervical detection and management.