Fiber Optic Probe May Replace Pap Smear.

• Position: Detecting cervical cancer - Brief Article

Tests are under way of a painless cervical cancer detection method that uses a small fiber optic probe instead of a surgical knife. The device is intended to replace the colposcopy, a follow-up test to the long-standing cervical cancer detection procedure known as the Pap smear. The colposcopy is utilized when the Pap smear indicates the possibility of cervical cancer, the second most common cancer found in women worldwide.

The probe is connected to a computer in the physician's office that instantaneously reports the presence of precancerous cells and requires no tissue removal or incision, explains Rebecca Richards-Kortum, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Biomedical Engineering. She says use of the probe "doesn't require the same amount of training and visual recognition skills required to do colposcopy." Moreover, the procedure "narrows both the reporting time and the margin for error in the test. It reduces the false positive rate by 20%. We've...