Researchers are considering screening average-risk asymptomatic women for cervical cancer with only HPV testing. We now know that HPV, human papillomavirus is the virus that causes cells on the cervix to change from normal cells to cancer. 

We used to perform pap smears every year in sexually active women starting after their first sexual encounter.  We have changed our screening practices to take into account HPV and the time-frame it takes for those cells to change.  In the 1990s we changed screening for cervical cancer from only doing pap smears to doing pap smears and testing for HPV.

In the past 15 years there have been 13 population-based randomized controlled trials which have found that primary HPV screening is as effective at detecting CIN3+ (abnormal cervical cells near cancer) as contesting with both pap and HPV testing.

Currently, an HPV specimen is obtained much like a pap smear is obtained.  In the future there may be vaginal self-sampling.  One self-sample method is like a tampon that the patient inserts into the vagina, turns a few times, places it in a transport tube and returns it to the lab.  Another approach is collecting a urine sample which will contain desquamated cells from the cervix and vagina.  This is not standard-of-care yet.  Stay tuned.