Laboratories across the country soon will change the way they communicate with physicians about the 50 million cervical cancer screening tests performed each year in the United States. The revised system, known as the 2001 Bethesda System and published in the April 24, 2002, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), conveys laboratory findings that help physicians and their patients decide what to do about the abnormalities found on Pap tests.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is now recognized as the major cause of cervical cancer, a disease that kills more than 200,000 women around the world each year. HPV is very common, however, and of the more than 100 types of HPV, fewer than 20 are considered "high-risk" for the development of cancer. The following is a brief guide to HPV, including transmission, incidence, treatment, and its connection to genital warts and cancer.