News Release

UPMC NORTHWEST ACQUIRES ADVANCED PAP TEST TECHNOLOGY

		UPMC Northwest’s new Cytyc ThinPrep Imaging System makes Pap tests for cervical cancer more thorough than ever. Here Laboratory staff member Connie Emeigh readies the imager for testing.

March 1, 2006 — In 1998, UPMC Northwest was one of the first hospitals in western Pennsylvania to use the Cytyc ThinPrep Pap Test that improved significantly on the conventional Pap exam. Now the hospital laboratory is one of the first in the region to utilize Cytyc’s ThinPrep Imaging System that advances cervical cancer screening even further.

The ThinPrep Imaging System uses state-of-the-art digital imaging technology to assist cytotechnologists and pathologists in evaluating Pap slides for evidence of abnormal cells. The new technology pinpoints specific sections of a Pap smear that should get examiners’ closest attention, making the exam process more thorough than ever, says cytotechnologist Barry Rerko, CT, ASCP.

The new imaging system “enhances our ability to pick up abnormalities when we’re testing,” Mr. Rerko says. “The technology is great: the computerized imager reviews the slide before we do and guides us right to those sites that potentially are abnormal so we’re more likely to find something than we would without it.”

Cytotechnologists still examine the entire slide for any sign of disease, but the imaging system’s ability to scan every cell and cell cluster and precisely identify areas that need the most investigation greatly aids the examination process. “We’re still using microscopes and human expertise to study Pap smears, but now we’re doing so with help from new technology,” Mr. Rerko says. “The imaging system doesn’t replace human screeners, but it enhances what they do in the laboratory.”

Using both the ThinPrep Imaging System and the cytotechnologist produces a “dual screening” that helps to ensure more thorough, accurate diagnosis, says laboratory manager Jan Smith, MT, ASCP.

The ThinPrep Imaging System builds on improvements that UPMC Northwest already has experienced with the ThinPrep Pap Test the past several years: the Thin Prep exam is more sensitive, so it can detect more cases of cervical disease in their earliest stages when they’re most treatable, and it provides higher-quality samples for diagnostic review, so it reduces the need for inconvenient, anxiety-producing repeat exams.

The ThinPrep Pap Test helped solve many of the problems associated with conventional Pap tests, including false results that required retesting, and the ThinPrep Imaging System improves on this solution, Ms. Smith says.

Besides more thorough exams, another significant benefit for patients is faster results. With the new technology, results are available in only three or four days instead of five to seven days, according to pathologist Jin H. Suk, MD.

With the ThinPrep Pap Test and the new ThinPrep Imaging System, “we’re offering the latest cervical cancer screening technology to women in our area,” Mr. Rerko says.
UPMC Northwest was the first UPMC hospital to use the ThinPrep Pap Test. Now UPMC Northwest and Magee-Womens Hospital are pioneering use of the ThinPrep Imaging System: they’re among only three or four western PA hospitals that have the new technology.

About 15,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the United States every year and the disease causes about 5,000 deaths, but it’s one of the most curable of all forms of cancer if it’s diagnosed and treated in its early stages.