ThinPrep Pap test to replace Pap smear

By Lindsey Alpert

Daily Staff Reporter

The fight against cancer has important allies - early detection devices. And one of these devices, the Papanicolaou (Pap) smear test, named after the doctor who created the test in the 1940s, has helped to decrease the rate of death from cervical cancer by more than 70 percent.

Cervical cancer affects about 450,000 women each year, but about 95 percent of cases are curable if treated early.

Health services across the nation are using a new test considered by the Food and Drug Administration to be more effective than the traditional Pap smear test in clinical studies. The test was approved by the FDA in May 1996.

The test, called the ThinPrep Pap Test, produces higher quality specimens and is more effective in detecting low-grade squamous intraepithelial - abnormal growth in cervical cells, than the traditional test - according to the FDA.

Both the conventional Pap smear and the ThinPrep Pap Test take a sample from the patient in the same way, but they differ in the preparation of slides to examine for abnormalities.

In the conventional test, the sample is smeared on a slide and unused cells are discarded. The ThinPrep test uses a fluid-based system that ensures all the cells are used, said Jeff Keene, the director of corporate communications at Cytyc Corporation, the distributors of the ThinPrep test.

The ThinPrep test can also be used to look for Human Papillomavirus, a precursor to the cancer. "Doctors have the opportunity to do an HPV test without bringing the patient back," Keene said.

More than 600 labs nationwide use the ThinPrep system, but the test costs $20 to $30 more than the traditional test.

"Right now we use the traditional pap test, but we are hoping to move to the ThinPrep test," said Fran Beckely, a nurse practitioner at Women's Health Center in Ann Arbor. "We'll probably move as soon as we know that labs and insurance companies will cover it."

Not all insurance plans, but most major companies will, cover ThinPrep, Keene said.

The University Health System has started to offer the test. "It's one of the things we offer, but we don't use it routinely" said Ron Mulder, head of the gynecology department at UHS.

"It's used in high-risk situations," Mulder said. High-risk situations include previous abnormal Pap smears.

Although the test costs UHS nearly three times more, students receive the test for free, Mulder said. UHS performs about 6,000 Pap smears annually.

It is recommended that sexually active women and women over 18 years of age receive a Pap smear annually.