Undergoing a regular Pap smear exam has gone a long way to helping prevent and fight cervical cancer in women, allowing patients to start treatment and stop cancer’s deadly effects.

A Pap smear exam is so useful because it allows cervical cancer to be caught early on, before it has a chance to develop, which allows the disease to be countered quickly and effectively. Indeed, since the Pap smear exam was first introduced, it has reduced the incidence of cervical cancer by more than 60 percent.

Pap Smear Exam

During a Pap smear exam, cells from a patient’s cervix are collected and examined for evidence that may indicate the possibility of a future diagnosis with cervical cancer. This kind of early warning allows a patient who shows signs of cancer to undergo preventative treatment, which can in many cases stop the cancer entirely.

Regular screening is what makes this process most effective. According to the American Cancer Society, women age 21 to 29 should receive a Pap smear exam every three years, and those between the ages of 30 and 65 every five years.

The Pap smear exam has long been used as an early detection tool for cervical cancer, and may soon also be used for detecting ovarian and endometrial cancers as well. A recent study found that genetic analysis of cells from a Pap smear exam can help identify around 81 percent of endometrial cancers, as well as 33 percent of ovarian cancers. Certain modifications, however, may be able to improve these results drastically to make it a more effective form of detection.

The use of a Pap smear exam for this kind of cancer detection could be an especially useful development because endometrial and ovarian cancers are generally extremely deadly, primarily because they’re usually caught at very late stages, when they are much more difficult to treat. Around 25,000 women in the United States die from these diseases each year. But the science is not perfect.

Problems with the Pap Smear Exam

Of course, the Pap smear exam isn’t without its own flaws, even when used to detect early cervical cancer.

While the introduction of the Pap smear exam has undeniably helped prevent and fight cervical cancer in countless women, it is not an infallible process. Indeed, those who undergo even regular Pap smear exams may later end up being diagnosed with cervical cancer. There are a few reasons for these missed diagnoses.

The main reason for a missed cancer diagnosis after a Pap smear is human error—for instance, a medical lab may fail to detect and thus diagnose cancerous cells that appear in a Pap smear exam, meaning that patients with cervical cancer may not be warned about it early enough to effectively treat it. Another way that signs of cervical cancer might be missed is if the Pap smear screening is defective, and presents a false negative.

Filing a Missed Cervical Cancer Lawsuit

If you believe a medical lab may have missed early signs of cancer in a Pap smear screening that could have prevented yours or a loved one’s cervical cancer diagnosis altogether, you may be able to file a lawsuit.

Filing a missed cervical cancer lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering caused by cervical cancer, nor can it bring a loved one back to life. But filing a lawsuit can help to alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses, hospital stays, and lost wages.