Delhi Delhi. A new option for cervical cancer screening gives patients a less invasive alternative to traditional tests. These new “self-collection tests” are coming to doctors' offices across the country this month. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May approved self-collection as a method for detecting human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer. The purpose of screening tests is to identify people at high risk of cancer or precancer, not to diagnose the disease.
This FDA approval enables patients to collect their own clinical samples for cervical cancer screening. As these trials begin, the U.S. Australia joins Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, where self-swabbing for HPV is already widely used.
For now, samples collected from the vaginal canal must still be collected in health care settings, such as doctor's offices. Other countries have allowed home self-sampling for HPV, but this method is still not available in the U.S. Pending FDA approval in the U.S. Here's what you need to know about the newly available self-collection tests.
HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection that is spread mainly through sexual intercourse or skin-to-skin contact. Most sexually active people will be infected with at least one type of HPV in their lifetime, but the infection usually clears up on its own. Although more than 30 types of HPV can infect the genitals, only a small number – called “high risk” HPV – are linked to cancer. Low-risk HPV has no symptoms and resolves on its own, although genital warts may occasionally appear. Still, this low-risk type of infection rarely leads to cancer.
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