Cervical Cancer DNA based testing

A long time ago before I was even born, my grandmother was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer. Unfortunately I was never able to meet her, as my mother was only 18 years old, and I wasn't even thought of then! I do wish more then anything that she could have been around for me to at least meet her but because of this terrible disease that many women have it was not possible.

According to CDC.org in 2009 approximately 12,357 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer. A Pap smear test is the most general way cervical cancer is tested in women. Now days they don't require women to have pap smears until their 21 years of age. This is something that I don't necessarily agree with. Some young women, like myself, have a family history of cervical cancer. This is why I feel that if you do have a family history of this, it shouldn't matter your age to have a pap smear.

These pap smear tests will show some abnormalities in the cervix of women, which gives warning to doctors that it may be the cause of cervical cancer, or HPV. There are many different types of abnormalities that can be found in a pap test. Some such as, atypical abnormal cells, can show a high risk of HPV in women. HPV can later lead to pre-cancerous cells of the cervix. Only further tests after an abnormal pap smear exam can determine the diagnosis of the abnormalities found. Having HPV which is incredibly common for sexually active women (as men are a carrier of this), makes women at a much higher risk for cervical cancer.

I recently came across an article that discussed DNA-based testing that can identify those that have higher risks of cervical cancer, rather then doing a "repeat pap smear". This is all based on a "Cochrane systematic review". When these abnormalities found in the pap tests are looked at under a microscope, doctors can determine whether they'll need treatment for this cervical cancer. Because the human papillomavirus is the main cause of cancer, this DNA based method, known as the Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) tests DNA from strains of the virus that are a higher risk of cervical cancer. This article has shown this method to be more accurate than doing more pap smear tests. This was proven by the authors who compared these methods with one another by reviewing 39 studies, involving 13,196 women total. The lead researcher, Marc Arbyn of the Unit of Cancer Epidemiology at the Scientific Institute of Public Health in Brussels, Belgium stated, "Based on these findings, the HC2 test can be recommended as a way of triaging women with an ASCUS smear". Women that show to have the more mild abnormalities require more specific test that will "triage" women with the LSIL (mild abnormalities).

Having a DNA based test that is shown to be more accurate then doing a repeat pap smear test would be great for future women that receive abnormal pap smear results. I feel that it's a great resource for many women to use. Considering some pap smear results can come back abnormal due to many other reasons, its much harder to pin point the exact abnormalities. Usually, doctors have to do many other specific tests to determine a true diagnosis for the abnormalities. Based on the research done by these authors, a DNA based test would give a more accurate diagnostic. The DNA based test can target whether there are atypical abnormal cells, or even pre-cancerous cells. This could really save a lot of lives from young women. As I said before men are carriers for the HPV virus, and many sexually active women are exposed to that. Women could have this virus that later causes cervical cancer and not even know about it. In some cases women get the HPV virus, but their body's will get rid of it on their own. Other women don't have this luck, as my grandmother. I feel that regardless the age of women, if they are sexually active a pap smear test should be done. You shouldn't have to wait until you're 21 years of age.  

References:

Marc Arbyn, Jolien Roelens, Cindy Simoens, Frank Buntinx, Evangelos Paraskevaidis, Pierre PL Martin-Hirsch, Walter J Prendiville. Human papillomavirus testing versus repeat cytology for triage of minor cytological cervical lesions. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD008054.pub2

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD008054.pub2/abstract;jsessionid=0E39970AA84160FEC0EAA1B0BB8D54C3.d04t04
Pap smear testing
DNA photo
http://www.cdc.gov/hpv/

R.I.P to my grandmother <3