Many Women Who Don’t Need Them Are Still Getting Pap Tests

My regular readers know that I frequently bemoan the fact that we have no effective way to test for most cancers, and that in many cancers early diagnosis does not improve survival. Cervical cancer is one of the few exceptions. Since Georgios Papanikolau developed the test named after him, the Pap test has dramatically reduced the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer. More recent advances have shown that cervical cancer is caused by human papilloma virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted in...
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