A recent article in The Lancet: Oncology suggests that HPV testing should be used in all women over the age of 29 as an adjunct to the Pap smear. A group of more than 22,000 women were randomized to either a Pap smear or a Pap smear and an HPV test. Then, five years later, the women were re-screened, and the frequency of serious abnormal results was compared between the two groups.
What the researchers found was that HPV 16 related pre-cancers were detected earlier in the intervention (HPV testing) group than in the control group. Furthermore, due to effective treatment of those early pre-cancers, women in the intervention group were significantly less likely to have serious lesions detected at the five year mark. However, although the scientists suggest that their results support HPV testing in all women over the age of 29, it is worth noting that the cumulative incidence of serious lesions was actually the same in both groups. Early detection may improve survival, but it's also possible that it may lead to over- or unnecessary treatment - something that would need to be examined in further studies.
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