ANDREW POLLACK, New York Times APRIL 24, 2014 The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first alternative to the long-used Pap test as a primary screening method for cervical cancer, in the face of opposition from some women’s groups and health organizations. The new test, developed by Roche, detects the DNA of the […]
WASHINGTON POST, APRIL 24, 2014 The April 22 front-page article “FDA relents in battle against a cruel disease,” about parents urging the Food and Drug Administration to approve a promising drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, pulled on the heartstrings. However, there is a better way to get an experimental drug to patients than lowering approval standards. […]
BY MATTHEW PERRONE AP HEALTH WRITER April 24, 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health regulators have cleared a genetic test from Roche as a first-choice screening option for cervical cancer. It was a role previously reserved for the Pap smear, the decades-old mainstay of women’s health. The Food and Drug Administration approved Roche’s cobas HPV […]
Moving to a DNA-based testing model would be a “radical shift” in medical practice that could lead to confusion, higher costs and overtreatment.
The committee proposes replacing Pap smears with an equally invasive but less conclusive test, the HPV test, when women reach the age of 25.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday took the rare step of urging doctors to stop performing a surgical procedure used on tens of thousands of women each year to remove uterine growths, saying the practice risks spreading hidden cancers within a woman’s body.