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Cancer Malpractice Lawyer -- Cervical Cancer Screening (PAP)

Here are 9 things to remember about PAP tests:

1.  PAP tests (a.k.a. PAP smears) are not not always 100% accurate.

2.  If you were born between 1940 and 1971 and your mother took a synthetic form of estrogen called diethylstilbestrol (DES) when she was pregnant with you, you may require additional PAP testing for a rare form of cancer.

3.  HPV testing can be done at the same time you get your PAP testing.

4.  If your PAP result is "ASC-US" (atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance), this means that some cells from the lining of the outer cervix do not appear normal.

5.  If your PAP result is "ASC-H" (atypical squamous cells, cannot exclude HSIL), this means that cervical cells do not appear normal and a high-grade lesion may be present, but the cell changes are too minor to know for sure.

6.  If your PAP result is "LSIL" (low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion), this means that squamous cells are abnormal but are usually not precancerous.

7.  If your PAP result is "HSIL" (high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion), this means that the lesion is precancerous and without treatment may turn to invasive cancer.

8.  If your PAP result is "AIS" (adenocarcinoma in situ), this means there is a precancerous lesion in the glandular tissue of the cervix.

9.  If your PAP result is "Cancer", this means there are cancer cells present in the cervix.

If you've been diagnosed with cervical cancer or some other cancer, such as breast cancer, and you want to find out whether your cancer was diagnosed as soon as it should have been call us at 412-471-4300 or toll free at 800-350-6161, or email us.  At Berger & Lagnese, our attorneys specialize in medical malpractice, and work on cases in Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Uniontown, Beaver, Erie, Washington, and all courts in Western Pennsylvania.  Our team of lawyers will find out what happened with your medical care and will get you the answers to your questions.

New Rapid Test for HPV Which Causes Cervical Cancer

A new rapid test for the human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer, has proven to be 90 percent accurate in a trial involving women in rural villages in eastern China.

The findings were published in The Lancet Oncology, and researchers said it could help pave the way for effective screening to prevent cervical cancer in rural and resource-poor settings.

The rapid test, careHPV, is a product of Qiagen NV and was designed to detect 14 high-risk types of HPV in about 2.5 hours. It can be operated by staff with minimal training and without any running water.

"If women 30 years and older could be screened at least once in their lifetimes with such a test, and appropriate treatment administered at the same visit, public health programmes would be affordable and deaths from cervical cancer would be reduced by a third," said one of the researchers, John Sellors, professor of family medicine at the McMaster University in Canada.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer affecting women worldwide. It causes 300,000 deaths a year, with 85 percent of these occurring in the developing world.

Screening using Pap smear is routinely done in the United States and Europe, where it has led to a 50 percent reduction in mortality. But implementing such tests in developing countries is not as easy, where taking smears and reading them can be problematic.

Although there are now vaccines against HPV, they are useless in women already exposed to the virus. For these older women, screening and early detection remain the best hope.

The trial involved 2,388 women in Shanxi in eastern China who were given instruments and instructions to collect specimens themselves. Midwives also collected other swab samples from the women. These were all run through careHPV tests.

Results were then compared against digital colposcopies done by a gynecologist at the site. Colposcopy examines the cervix and surrounding tissues for precancerous lesions.

"The ability of the careHPV test to detect precancerous cells was found to be 90 percent; 84.2 percent of the women without precancerous disease were identified as negative by the test," the researchers said in a statement.

For more information about cervical cancer, contact the cervical cancer malpractice lawyers in Pennsylvania.  If your cancer was missed or misdiagnosed, we will get your medical records, hire the top experts to review your case, and find out what really happened.