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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2000;283:3060.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Using a simple and inexpensive procedure similar to a Papanicolaou (Pap) test to screen for anal cancer among gay and bisexual men would be a cost-effective way to save lives, according to researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine.

Each year, for every 100,000 gay men in the United States, 35 develop anal squamous cell cancer, a number comparable to the 40 women per 100,000 who developed cervical cancer before the routine use of Pap tests. Both malignancies are caused by human papillomavirus.

The study, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Cancer Institute, and other sources, suggests that using an "anal Pap smear" to screen high-risk gay and bisexual men would result in detection of precancerous lesions and early treatment of anal cancer. Screening every 2 to 3 years would cost . . . [Full Text of this Article]