Healthcare Companies Preparing To Introduce Self-Collection Model For Cervical Cancer Screening, Prevention

The New York Times (8/15, Friedman) reports “a handful of health care companies are preparing to introduce a new model for cervical cancer screening and prevention that would” act as an alternative to Pap smears. The self-collection model involves a woman swabbing “her vagina in the doctor’s office, using only a narrow swab that looks similar to the one used during a Covid test.” After “the sample is collected, a lab would test it for the strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, most likely to cause cervical cancer.” An important “change in HPV screening has made the technique possible: Labs are now able to test using samples taken from the vaginal walls, as opposed to from the cervix itself.”