Pap smears-which recently alerted Marilyn Quayle`s doctors to a pre-cancerous condition-remain the best weapon women have in preventing and defeating cervical cancer, says Dr. George Wilbanks of Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke`s Medical Center.
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”Theoretically, if every woman had a Pap smear with some (regularity), we could eliminate cervical cancer and deaths from cervical cancer,” says Wilbanks, chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology department of the center`s Rush Medical College. About 14,000 American women get cervical cancer annually; about 6,800 die from it.
The smear involves scraping cell samples from the cervix which are then examined in a laboratory. Results can range from normal, to the presence of cells suspected to be cancer. There also is a wide range of conditions between those two extremes, Wilbanks says, which may or may not indicate a pre-cancerous condition. Additional tests or a biopsy may then be done.
”The Pap test is only a screening test and not a diagnosis,” Wilbanks says.
Generally, all sexually active women should have an annual Pap smear.
In late July, Marilyn Quayle, 41, the wife of Vice President Dan Quayle, underwent a hysterectomy after Pap smears indicated ”severe dysplasia,” a precursor to cervical cancer. Her doctors declared her to be ”100 percent cured.”