New cervical smear test could improve screening accuracy

A new cervical cancer smear test, which promises to save thousands of lives by reducing the potential for human error in identifying abnormal cervical cells, has successfully completed early stage trials and could be launched within three years, researchers in the United Kingdom announced this week.

The test, developed by Cancer Research Campaign (CRC) scientists at Cambridge University, uses antibodies that home in on Cdc6 and Mcm5, two recently discovered protein molecules that regulate DNA replication and are only present in cells which have the potential to replicate. A green fluorescent or brown dye is used to highlight these antibodies so that any abnormal cells stand out much more clearly than …