New Pap Guidelines May Miss Aggressive Cancer in Young Women: Study

One cancer can cause problems in less than two years, but recommended screening is now every three years

March 7, 2013 RSS Feed Print

Poyner agreed. "This is something we need to have a conversation about," she said. "Will the new guidelines compromise our ability to find adenocarcinoma in situ? Only time will tell for sure, but this is something we need to be concerned about."

Barroilhet added that young women can take an important step to protect themselves by getting vaccinated against HPV. The vaccine is recommended at age 12 or 13, but is approved for use in females from the ages of 9 to 26.

"If you get your HPV vaccine, the Pap screen then becomes much less critical," Barroilhet said.

More information

To learn more about the Pap test, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.