Better Than Pap: Virus test detects cervical cancer

For more than 50 years, doctors have used Papanicolaou tests—better known as Pap smears—to screen women for cervical cancer. But researchers now report that a newer test gives a more accurate diagnosis.

In a Pap smear, cells scraped from the cervix are analyzed under a microscope for physical abnormalities. Tests developed in the past decade, however, can detect the presence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical cells.