MSG - In spite of the last paragraph you copied from their text, isn't it curious that the Centers for Disease Control this year is recommending that women no longer completely depend on the PAP smear for cervical cancer, (which finds dysplasia, when the cell is on its way to going south) but recommends for the Digene HPV test in addition to PAP during exams for those women that have an ambiguous or positive PAP. So why is this so? More data points.

Routine testing for high grade HPV will show whether a woman has a PERSISTENT infection, one that your immune system is not clearing, and that infection is the mandatory precursor for the development of cervical cancer. Looking at any assay, only traps that one moment in time. Interesting, and in some cases highly important, but trap two sequential moments in time and you see a trend, which is a line pointing to an event. Add additional data points like person has a histology result that is suspect and also has HPV... This is a person that is in a different group than everyone else, and needs one of three possible resolutions that they have recommended. While very useful, the PAP test isn't known for its high sensitivity nor specificity.

Brian, stage 4 oral cancer survivor. OCF Founder and Director. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.