Health
Cervical cancer deaths could be reduced with home HPV testing, study finds
A push for more accessible HPV testing is underway.
A new program called SHIP Trial Network, led by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is exploring testing for human papillomavirus (HPV) via self-collection to prevent cervical cancer, according to a press release.
The Last Mile Initiative, announced at the White House Cervical Cancer Forum on Jan. 25 by NCI’s director Dr. Kimryn Rathmell, will gather data on a self-collection method for HPV.
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HPV testing can be crucial for preventing cervical cancer, according to Dr. Brian Slomovitz, director of gynecologic oncology and co-chair of the Cancer Research Committee at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.
Slomovitz advocated for this self-collection method in an interview with Fox News Digital.
SHIP Trial Network stands for “Self-collection for HPV testing to Improve cervical cancer Preventions.” Screening, said one doctor, “is of the utmost importance.” (iStock)
More than 50% of individuals in the U.S. who have developed cervical cancer have never been or are infrequently screened, according to Slomovitz and NCI.
“We know that screening is of the utmost importance,” he said.
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Nicole B. Saphier, M.D. — associate professor at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering in Monmouth, New Jersey, and a Fox News medical contributor — reiterated the importance of routine screening for cervical cancer.
“While it’s not practical to screen for all cancers, cervical cancer is certainly one that benefits from routine screening,” she told Fox News Digital.
Nearly 100% (99.7%) of cervical cancers are caused by an HPV infection, according to Saphier.
Many patients are turned off by the “intrusiveness” of pap smears, said one physician. (iStock)
Since pap smears began screening for HPV by taking a sample of the cervix, Saphier noted that cervical cancer mortality has decreased.
One of the limitations of screenings, according to Slomovitz, is a lack of access to providers due to proximity, financial restrictions or other factors.
“Bottom line, anything that works for early cancer detection is important.”
“One of the advantages of at-home testing is that, in essence, it could eliminate a lot of these barriers,” he said.
“Some women may have a job during the week, and they don’t have the time to go to a doctor’s office, or some people don’t have the money to pay for the visit.”
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Saphier added that many women avoid regular cervical cancer screenings due to the “intrusiveness of the exam,” similar to colon cancer screenings and colonoscopies.
“As such, colon cancer screening[s] with at-home tests have increased colon cancer screening,” Saphier said.
Nearly 100% (99.7%) of cervical cancers are caused by an HPV infection. (iStock)
“The SHIP trial initiative for patients to screen themselves at home for HPV is important, so it can give patients who otherwise would not be screened an option for at-home screening.”
By offering at-home testing, providers are “recognizing the importance of cervical cancer screening, but we’re doing it in such a way that makes it a lot easier for the patients,” Slomovitz noted.
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The HPV self-collection, which would come in the form of a vaginal swab, would help identify those women who require an in-office follow-up with a doctor, he said.
Although the swab would have to be sent to a lab for results — requiring an extra step compared to other at-home tests — Slomovitz believes it would still be a popular alternative for patients.
An at-home HPV sample collection would “eliminate a lot of the barriers” that bar patients from being screened at a doctor’s office, an expert said. (iStock)
“The time it takes to go to the doctor’s office and the expense are sometimes prohibitive for the entire population,” he said. “So even with the extra step of mailing it in, this is going to be a lot easier than having to go to the doctor’s office.”
Saphier said her concern about self-collection is that patients “won’t get adequate samples and the test may result in a false negative.”
She added, “Bottom line, anything that works for early cancer detection is important, in my opinion.”
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“But these at-home tests should be taken with precaution, as they are unlikely to be as sensitive and specific as the gold-standard tests for cancer detection.”
While the test itself isn’t yet ready for “prime time,” Slomovitz pointed out that the SHIP Network is backed by the government and on the road to potential FDA approval.
HPV is “highly preventable” by HPV vaccination and by early detection and treatment of “cervical precancerous changes,” according to NCI. (iStock)
“The best way to treat cancer is to prevent cancer,” he said. “And something like this is definitely a huge step in further prevention.”
NCI reiterated in its press release that HPV is “highly preventable” by HPV vaccination, early detection and treatment of “cervical precancerous changes.”
“These at-home tests should be taken with precaution, as they are unlikely to be as sensitive and specific as the gold-standard tests.”
The NCI has partnered with professional societies to revise and update guidelines for health care workers to integrate self-collection approaches into their clinical practice once the method has been approved, the group wrote.
“In addition, NCI is developing a publicly accessible repository of self-collection instructions and educational materials for clinicians, community health workers and people who may use the testing method in the future,” they added.
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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