Cervical cancer screening is an essential part of a woman’s routine health care. Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by infection with sexually transmitted oncogenic, or high-risk, types of human papillomavirus, or HPV. The primary goal of screening is to identify precancerous lesions caused by HPV so they can be removed to prevent invasive cancers from developing. A secondary goal is to find cervical cancers at an early stage, when they can usually be treated successfully. Routine cervical screening has been shown to greatly reduce both the number of cervical cancer cases and deaths from the disease.

For many years, cytology-based screening, known as the Pap test or Pap smear, was the only method of screening. Its use reduced cervical cancer incidence and deaths in countries where screening is common.

However, with the advent of the ability to test for HPV, cervical cancer screening now includes three approaches: HPV testing, which looks for the presence of high-risk HPV types in cervical cells; Pap testing; and HPV/Pap cotesting, which checks the same cell sample for both high-risk HPV types and cervical cell changes.