The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study indicating that more than 11 percent of women in the U.S. do not get screened for cervical cancer.  The study, published in the CDC publication Vital Signs, looked at data from 2007 to 2012.  They found that 11.4 percent of women had not been screened for cervical cancer in the last five years.

The study looked at screening using the Papanicolaou (Pap) test, which was introduced in the U.S. in the 1950s.  Since the Pap smear has become widespread, cervical cancer incidence and mortality have decreased dramatically.  Still, there are women that could be better protected if they followed recommendations for screening.

In addition to screening with a Pap test alone every three years, recent cervical cancer screening recommendations now include the use of the human papillomavirus (HPV) test.  The HPV test is used to detect infection with HPV types that are associated with cervical cancers.  The HPV test is used in conjunction with the Pap test every five years among women between the ages of 30 and 65 years.

According to NBC News, the findings by the CDC translate to as many as 8 million women that are not screened as often as they could be.  With more than 12,000 women diagnosed with cervical cancer in a year and one-third of them dying from it, early detection is the key to fighting the disease.  There is a strong correlation between screening and lack of cervical cancer.  More than half of women diagnosed with cervical cancer cases had never or rarely been screened.