BC Cancer launches free at-home cervical cancer screening

KAMLOOPS – BC Cancer has launched a new way to screen for cervical cancer.

Now, female residents between the ages of 25 and 69 years old can request a free at-home cervix self-screening kit.

According to Dr. Lily Proctor, gynecologist-oncologist and medical director of BC Cancer’s cervical cancer screening program, the new way to screen eliminates the need for pap smear testing at a doctor’s office, and is more accurate in detecting HPV before it becomes cervical cancer.

“This transition reflects a change towards testing for HPV or human papillomavirus, which is the cause of those precancerous cell changes. We’re taking a step back to look at the cause,” Proctor told CFJC News. “By doing so, we’re increasing our sensitivity. We’ll have fewer missed cases of cervical cancers, we’ll be able to find these cases sooner and faster.”

Proctor says decades of research led to the new program, adding that giving patients access to an at-home test may reduce the workload for primary physicians.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction by allowing people to self-screen,” she explained. “We’re going to be increasing hopefully a bit of capacity within primary care to see people in person for things that they really need to be seen in person for.”

Requesting a kit can be done online. Those eligible for a test will be sent the kit in the mail. Using the kit, patients can complete a vaginal swab and then send that swab to the lab with the pre-paid envelope included in the kit.

Results of the test are available within four to six weeks. Positive results will include the next steps for the patient and how to follow up with more testing, regardless of whether they have a family doctor.