For the second time in a week, new guidelines call for less-frequent cancer screening for women.
Today, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will announce changes to its screening guidelines for cervical cancer.
According to The New York Times, the group will advise women to get their first Pap tests at age 21. Previous advice called for a Pap test three years after a woman first had sexual intercourse, but not later than age 21. The group also will recommend that women get the test every two years instead of annually until age 30.
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On Monday, the United States Preventive Services Task Force released guidelines that caused a furor. The task force recommended that most women delay the start of routine mammograms until age 50, rather than 40, and that the test take place every other year, not annually. It also recommended against training women to perform breast self-examinations, the Times said.
The timing of the two announcements was “an unfortunate perfect storm,” Dr. Cheryl B. Iglesia, chairwoman of the panel that developed the Pap smear guidelines, told the Times. “There’s no political agenda with regard to these recommendations.”
“Still,” noted the Times, “the new recommendations for Pap tests are likely to feed a political debate in Washington over health care overhaul proposals. The mammogram advice led some Republicans to predict that such recommendations would lead to rationing.”
Iglesia, whose group opposes cutting back on mammography, said there is a more compelling reason to change Pap screening, according to the Times. “The reason is that young women are especially prone to develop abnormalities in the cervix that appear to be precancerous, but that will go away if left alone,” the Times said. Because of Pap tests, doctors often remove the growths, using procedures that can lead to problems later when a woman becomes pregnant.
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At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
The National Cervical Cancer Coalition, a patient advocacy group, endorsed the recommendations, The Washington Post reported.
More stories worth a read:
- Senate health care bill faces crucial first vote (New York Times)
- Listing the new taxes in the Senate health-care bill (Wall Street Journal)
- In medical research, who should define conflict of interest? (Wall Street Journal)
- School-based H1N1 vaccination clinics expected to soon begin across Ohio (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Case Western School of Medicine receives RWJF grant to establish a public health research network (Bio-Medicine)
- Lilly’s departing R&D chief gets a $2M payout (Pharmalot)
- Medtronic chairman and CEO Bill Hawkins comments on U.S. Senate’s revised medical device industry fee proposal (Business Wire)
- $5.3M for Corindus (Xconomy | Boston)
- When will the FDA drop the gavel? (mobihealthnews)
