Learning more
Research already under way provides some insights. In conjunction with Dr. Feldman and Chris Crum, MD, director of Women's Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Ed Cibas, MD, director of Cytology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, has completed a study on women over 30 who had normal Pap tests. In this study, 1,000 women were also tested for the 13 high-risk strains of HPV. A normal Pap test with a positive HPV test could signal a chronic HPV infection — putting a woman at higher risk for cervical cancer. The study found that Pap tests were highly reliable in this setting, and that very few women (3.9 percent overall) tested positive for HPV after a negative Pap test. These results should be very reassuring for women over 30 with a negative (i.e., normal) Pap test.
Additional answers may come through a Web database that will store information regarding HPV vaccination and subsequent rates of HPV infection and cervical cancer. The database will provide preliminary information to assist in developing additional clinical trials of HPV prevention. And it will also help answer questions about the best ways to screen and track women with newly diagnosed HPV and the role of the vaccine in preventing further episodes of cervical dysplasia (any type of abnormal cells on the surface of the cervix) and cancer in women who have abnormal Pap smears.
Moreover, it will aid in developing studies in the area of education and improving technology for diagnosis and treatment.
"For example, if a woman receives the vaccine, we can follow her in real time and see if it affects outcomes and improves care," says Dr. Feldman. "This system makes it possible for information from various sites to be entered simultaneously as patients are seen and will help in evaluating new technologies related to cervical cancer and its precursors."
