The Cobas test, which researchers claim is significantly more accurate than smear testing, returns results in less than a day and could be available in doctors’ surgeries within a year.
Unlike smear tests, which detect abnormal cell growth, the Cobas test screens patients for the human papilloma virus (HPV), which triggers the irregular growth of the cells. This means that cancer could be detected at an earlier stage, and that results are more accurate, according to the British and American scientists, who tested thousands of women.
The test picks up almost all cancer cases, while smear tests fail to detect up to one in three. Patients may need to be rescreened only every five years.
Cervical cancer is responsible for the deaths of about 1,000 women in Britain every year. It is the second most common form of cancer in young women, with almost 3,000 cases diagnosed annually, but its survival rates are significantly worse than other cancers because it frequently goes undiagnosed until its later stages.
Dr Thomas Wright, from Columbia University in New York, which conducted the research, told the Daily Mail: “Up to a third of women diagnosed with cervical cancer have normal smear tests. We think this new test would detect cancers in the vast majority of women.”
Doctors claim smear testing, which many women undergo every three years, is “unreliable” because cells with HPV can appear normal but go on to develop cancer months after being tested.
Trials of the Cobas test on 47,000 women aged 30 or over found that it detected HPV in at least 10 per cent of patients who had been given the all-clear after smear tests. Women in whom the virus is detected would undergo further testing to determine whether cancer had begun to develop.
But Henry Scowcroft, of Cancer Research UK, said there was “work to be done” before the test, developed by drug company Roche, could be adopted by the NHS.
He said: “This new trial confirms what was known about this test’s promise, but there’s still work to be done to answer the remaining questions surrounding its use in practice.
“If the NHS decided to change from the cervical screening test to this newer method, there would likely be no going back. So there needs to be hard evidence that the HPV test would improve the screening programme.”
Eight out of 10 sexually active women will contract HPV at some point in their lives. The infection clears itself up within two years in 80 per cent of cases.