Aging, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, CDC, OBGYNE / 03.05.2017
Cervical Cancer Is Not Just a Young Woman’s Disease: Older Women Should Have PAP Smears Too
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mary C. White, ScD
Epidemiology and Applied Research Branch
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, CDC
Atlanta GA 30341
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: For women between the ages of 21 to 65, Pap testing every three years, or Pap testing with HPV co-testing every five years, can prevent cervical cancers and deaths.
Current recommendations state that women 65 and older and not otherwise at special risk can skip Pap tests, but only if they have had three consecutive negative Pap screening tests or two consecutive negative co-tests over the past 10 years, with the most recent done within the past five years.
We used data from two federal cancer registry programs to examine how cervical cancer risk changes with age, after excluding women who have had a hysterectomy. We also examined data from a federal national health survey to examine the proportion of women who either had never been tested or had not been tested in the last 5 years.
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