The new Pap smear explained

Pap smears have saved thousands of women from cervical cancer, but as Professor Kerryn Phelps explains, they are about to be replaced by a new, more comprehensive type of screening test.

From May 1, 2017, the National Cervical Cancer Screening Program will be undergoing a very significant fundamental change. The Pap smear will be replaced with the Cervical Screening Test to detect HPV (human papillomavirus), a group of several viruses which cause cervical cancer, and the time between tests will change from two years to five years.

The other major change will be the age at which screening starts.

This will increase from 18 years to 25 years. For decades, women have been advised to go to their general practitioner every two years, or more frequently, to have their regular Pap smear test.

The Pap smear was named after Dr Georgios Papanikolaou, who first published his findings about the changes in cervical smears in 1928. The test was later developed for clinical practice in the 1940s. It involves the microscopic detection of precancerous and cancerous changes in a sample of cells taken directly from the cervix and the lower part of the uterus. The aim is to detect these changes at a treatable stage.

Cervical cancer screening has been one of the great public health success stories. Since it was introduced, the Pap smear test has saved the lives of countless women.

In the early 1900s, cervical cancer was the leading cause of cancer death in women. It took Australia until 1991 to introduce a national screening program and, since that time, cervical cancer rates have halved. Eighty per cent of cervical cancer occurs in women who have never been screened or don’t screen regularly. In the 1970s, the role of HPV in the development of cervical cancer was first suggested. From this discovery came the Australian development of the HPV vaccine.