Loading...
Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and is a leading cause of mortality among women in underdeveloped countries. Although cervical-cancer–associated mortality has decreased with the introduction of Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screening, the low sensitivity of this test necessitates frequent retesting.
Because certain high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) are oncogenic and are associated with cervical cancer, cervical specimens of patients with abnormal Pap smears (i.e., atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance) sometimes are tested to identify DNA from these HPV subtypes. Even for screening in the general population, results of nonrandomized studies have suggested that HPV DNA testing is more sensiti…