[rubecube]

In good news:

https://www.timescolonist.com/local-...cancer-8086881

B.C. launched the country’s first at-home self-screening program for cervical cancer on Tuesday, aiming to eradicate the disease through early detection and to phase out conventional Pap tests.

Starting Jan. 29, anyone who is asymptomatic and age 25 to 69 can order the human papillomavirus (HPV) test kits from B.C. Cancer online or by phone at 1-877-702-6566. Participants can mail in the vaginal swab samples to the lab or drop them off with a health-care provider to get results within four to six weeks.

Those who receive a negative result will be advised to get another routine test in five years — longer than the three-year interval for Pap tests.

A patient who gets a positive result, depending on the HPV type, will be advised to seek further diagnostic testing —a colposcopy or Pap test — through their family practitioner or a designated physician or community clinic if they do not have one.

HPV is believed to cause the majority of cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer in women globally and among the fastest-increasing cancers for females in Canada. About 200 people in B.C. are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.