May 2014

May 2014—Recently I received the 2014 CAP PAPM-A (gynecologic pathology) slide set and was surprised to see case No. 5: a Pap test from an 82-year-old woman with a clinical history of “routine exam.” The cervical cancer screening recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend against screening women over the age of 65 who have had adequate prior screening and are not at high risk for cervical cancer, while the American Cancer Society, American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology, and American Society for Clinical Pathology guidelines recommend no screening for women over age 65 with evidence of adequate negative prior screening and no history of CIN2+ within the past 20 years.

May 2014—A tipping point implies a point of no return, a monumental change in the status quo, a transformation that leads to a new paradigm. Malcolm Gladwell, in The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, popularized the term and defined it as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.” Tipping points bring both positive and negative consequences; they are a time of change and opportunity. Such is the position that cytopathology finds itself in today.