Since the end of World War II, Pap smear screening has markedly
reduced the incidence and mortality of invasive cervical cancer in the United
States, Canada, UK, Australia, and Western Europe. Interestingly, it’s one of
the few widespread screening tests that have never been evaluated in a
randomized clinical trial,yet it has undoubtedly forever changed women’s
healthcare.
However, we may have reached the maximum benefit of Pap-based
cervical cancer screening and have learned quite a bit about this diagnostic
test in the last 20 years. Unfortunately, a single Pap smear has a false
negative rate of 50% (yes, 50%!). That might be even higher in areas where
prevalence of disease is low (i.e., an over-screened population or one with
high HPV vaccination rates).
