There is a difference between caution and overdiagnosis. It is the difference between healthy fear and near-pathological paranoia. And medical practitioners have the responsibility to ensure that before they write on their Rx pads to order the test, they have well-informed clinical bases for doing so. DURING March this year, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) rang the bell of caution with regard to the now-popular early detection test for cervical cancer called human papillomavirus (HPV) testing. Six studies agreed that it has a higher sensitivity to cancer indicators but lower specificity to cervical cancer compared to tissue studies. This means that it gives more positive results than it correctly should. And that’s where the concern of women patients lies. Studies have shown that such bloated counts of positive results in the past led to repeated testing and invasive procedures, such as colposcopy (using a lighted magnifying device) and cervical
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