Original broadcast date: March 30, 2008

The PAP test has been in existence for over 60 years. It is a screening test for cervical cancer and has the potential to detect precancerous changes, as well as to detect early stage disease and decrease cancer mortality. Although this test is credited with reducing cancer mortality, researchers from McGill University, Université de Montréal, the Newfoundland and Labrador Public Health Laboratory and McMaster University, published a study in the October 18 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine that looked at a more effective DNA-based screening test.

• Dr. Marie-Helene Mayrand, MD, MSc, FRCSC, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and social and preventive medicine at the University of Montreal and lead author of this study