Uncomfortable Pap Scrapes - Be Gone

Women dreading their regular Pap smear test can breath a sigh of relief today: the scraping is no longer necessary. The FDA today approved a new device from Diamics that sounds much more, well... comfortable.

The CerCol collector is comprised of a soft, anatomically-contoured collection tip. The collector with its reusable handle expands the tip to conform to the cervix, and assures 360 degree contact. In contrast to traditional techniques, the CerCol collector allows for consistent, operator- independent sampling which collects from endocervical, ectocervical and its transformation zone. Following collection, the collector can be placed in a liquid preservative or transfer device, currently in validation, which creates a "touch-prep" impression onto a slide for normal Pap staining. This Pap- Map(TM) technique maintains the original spatial orientation of the cervical sample thereby supporting localization of identified lesions in both initial diagnosis and follow-up treatments.

Issues with the Pap test, including false negative results, can be attributed to the failure of the current broom and spatula collection methods to adequately collect abnormal cells. In response to this recognized problem, over-interpretation of the collected sample has led to an increase in the number of false positives as noted in the medical literature.

I spoke with Jennifer Larson, spokesperson for Diamics, and she confirmed that this will eliminate the need for the (what has to be uncomfortable) scraping process during cervical cancer screening. [Materials from the sampling are then analyzed with the standard pap-analyis for aberrant lesions. If the results are positive, doctors will know where to biopsy thanks to the 360 degree Pap-Map technology.]*

Unfortunately, you will still need to use the speculum. It's a step forward, though.

Diamics Receives FDA Clearance for Revolutionary New Cervical Sample Collection System [press release]

Update (19:14 PM EST): Thanks to Jennifer Larson for pointing out that the original phrasing of the sentence – What's more, the 360 deegree sampling allows doctors to immediately know where to biopsy if the test is positive. – was somewhat confusing. The sampling itself doesn't immediately notify you if aberrant lesions are present, but the 360 degree sampling technique does allow clinicians to pinpoint where to biopsy if the test shows lesions.