PAP Test To Detect Breast And Ovarian Cancers At Early Stage!

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : February 4, 2022

The Pap test can also be called the Papanicolaou test. This method is used to detect or discover precancerous and cancerous processes in the cervix or colon. Actually, in the Pap test, your doctor holds your vaginal wall apart to see the cervix with the help of a vaginal speculum. In the next process samples of your cells are collected from the cervix with the help of a small cone-shaped brush and a tiny plastic spatula. 

PAP Test To Detect Breast And Ovarian Cancers At Early Stage!

It’s recommended by every doctor to take the Pap test repetitively every three years and especially for women under the ages of 21 to 65. The Pap test usually looks for the cells which can cause cervical cancer and are not normal. This test looks for HPV (Human Papillomavirus) in the cells from your cervix. 

PAP Test To Detect Breast And Ovarian Cancers At Early Stage!

You must be thinking about breast and ovarian cancers and how they can be detected with the help of a Pap test?

 Breast cancer is a disease that happens mostly in the breast of women and rarely in men. It is a kind of disease in which cells in the breast grow out of control. There are different types of breast cancer, you might never know which cell in the breast and which part of the breast can have cancer.

According to some research and studies, it has been clear that both mammograms and Pap tests can help in detecting breast cancer. During or when the doctor is taking a Pap test they collect cells from a woman’s cervix. These cells show the flaw or abnormalities in the cell and also help in indicating an increased risk of growing cervical cancer as well as breast cancer.

Ovarian cancer is a disease or cancer that happens in the female organ named ovaries that produces eggs. It happens often that ovarian cancer can’t be detected at first until it has spread within the pelvis and stomach.

According to research and some finding, it’s proven that Pap tests have been used for many years for detecting cervical cancer at an early stage so it can be cured at an early stage but from preliminary research, it’s found that or suggests that the cervical cells that are collected during pap test can also be used to detect different other cancers and in which one of them is ovarian cancer or tumors.

Though it’s very rare to detect ovarian cancer during a Pap test. It can happen when ovarian cancer cells travel from the ovaries to the area around your cervix. They travel from the fallopian tubes and uterus.

There is still no particular screening or standard test that can predict or find any ovarian cancer at its early stage and can be cured earlier. Though people with high risk for having ovarian cancer, doctors can predict cancer easily there is a high risk for getting it cured as it would be in its last stage. So, Doctors usually perform surgery to remove your fallopian tubes and ovaries so that risk can be reduced. 

A research test was taken among women with ovarian cancer and women without any disease. A total number of 242 women with ovarian cancer and 869 women without any disease willingly participated in this research. From this research, they found that the WID index identified that those women who are younger than 50 who had cancer were 71% and about 55% of those patients are older than 50.

The researcher further confirmed that the test was in another group of women in which 47 had ovarian cancer and 225 did not. They found that those women whose WID index was in the top 25% had a great risk of getting ovarian cancer.  


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

Sign Up For Our Daily Dose Of Hot News