CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – A University of Virginia internal medicine doctor is a co-author of new American Cancer Society guidelines recently released designed to improve and increase cervical cancer screenings.

UVA Health’s Dr. Andrew Wolf noted in a reporter conference call Tuesday they’ve been able to greatly restrict the instances of cervical cancer through HPV vaccination and screenings.

However, some numbers are starting to wane as he said nearly a-quarter of women fall behind in screenings, and the percentage jumps to nearly half the women in rural areas.

The answer, he and his colleagues hope, is more self-swabbing HPV testing.

“HPV causes almost all cases of cervical cancer,” Dr. Wolf said. “So if we can detect that, then we have a way of finding the risk factor for cervical cancer before cervical cancer starts.”

The Mayo Clinic points out there are about 100 types of human papillomavirus (HPV).

They can cause an array of symptoms including skin growth called “warts”.

While most don’t cause cancerous growths, some types of genital HPV can cause cancer of the lower part of the uterus that connects to the vagina, called the cervix.

Dr. Wolf said, “The majority of adults have been exposed to HPV at some point in their lives, and this is a preventable cancer.”

The primary line of defense is vaccination that Dr. Wolf said need to happen with children between the ages of 9 and 12.

“We need to be doing a better job of making sure all of our children are vaccinated against HPV,” Dr. Wolf said.

Then women need to have regular screenings, which used to primarily be a PAP smear.

The good news is because we know HPV is almost always the cause of cervical cancer, the most effective screening is an HPV test.

Dr. Wolf said there are reasons women fall behind, “Some women are just uncomfortable having a pelvic exam, a speculum exam from a clinician.”

And he noted, “From the clinician perspective, oftentimes doing cervical cancer screening does take an extra 10 or 15 minutes from the visit.”

It then becomes too easy to decide to put off that screening until “a next visit”.

He said that’s where the self-swab tests come in.

There are three such tests recently approved by the FDA.

Two of them involve self-swabbing and submitting the sample at a doctor’s office.

One of the approved tests have a woman swab at home and mail the sample to a lab.

These types of tests have been available since about 2020, but have been approved by the FDA, and Dr. Wolf and colleagues have updated the new American Cancer Society guidelines to include these testing methods.