Quebec moves from pap tests to more sensitive HPV screening in effort to catch cancer early
Rollout of high-risk HPV screening catches Quebec up to other provinces
Jennifer Curran was diagnosed with cervical cancer five years ago while she was pregnant with her daughter.
She had to navigate treatment while fighting for two lives.
“Part of that treatment was to plan when I should have a C-section, so when my daughter should be born, making sure she was old enough to be born, and cancer didn’t progress,” she said.
She discovered the cancer by accident during a hospital visit — it wasn’t part of routine testing during pregnancy.
“They do all kinds of testing when you’re pregnant and it hasn't come up,” said Curran.
Her story highlights a broader issue, her doctor says: most cervical cancers are preventable with better screening. Dr. Annie Leung, a gynecologic oncologist at the MUHC, noted the importance of early detection.
Quebec is working to change that. By mid-2026, the province plans to complete the rollout of a new human papillomavirus (HPV) screening test, catching up with Ontario, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia.
The province is moving away from the traditional pap test to this more sensitive HPV test, which can detect risks sooner. When cervical cancer is caught early through regular screening, the five-year survival rate is 90 per cent.
Not your run-of-the-mill pap test
This is not the traditional pap test. The new HPV screening is more sensitive, more accurate and can detect HPV before cells become abnormal — changing how cervical cancer is identified and prevented, an MUHC spokesperson explained in an email.
Back in 2022, Quebec’s health ministry announced plans to replace pap tests with HPV tests as the main tool for cervical cancer screening. The HPV test, which detects high-risk types of HPV, will be offered to women aged 25 to 65 every five years, the ministry said at the time.
Over the last four years, Quebec has been gradually rolling out this testing method region by region. Montreal is among the five regions that still don't offer the service. However, Quebec says everyone in the province should be able to access these HPV tests — recommended by the provincial health institute (INESSS) since 2017 — by the end of this year.
The shift toward HPV testing is central to Leung’s work, particularly in northern and remote Indigenous communities where cervical cancer rates remain among the highest in Canada.
The reason is not genetics but long-standing barriers to access, the spokesperson said.
“We want to encourage women to get tested and screened,” said Leung.
“The majority of patients do know about pap tests and one of the advances in technology that we can offer is a HPV test that looks at the DNA and helps us catch cancer earlier.”
Early detection is key
Dr. Shannon Salvador, a gynecologic oncologist at the Jewish General Hospital, said the HPV test rollout is taking longer than expected. She described a “soft rollout” currently underway in Montreal. January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.
“Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can be identified in the pre-cancer phase and I can’t stress enough how treatments are different in those different phases,” she said.
Beyond clinical tests, doctors hope a new solution will soon be more widely available: self-swabbing tests. U.S. health officials support this accessible approach to cervical cancer prevention but it remains limited in Canada.
Still, Leung is optimistic it will reach the province.
“Eventually we are going to move to the swab that will be inserted in the vagina, it’s flexible, a Q-tip,” said Leung.
Today, Curran and her daughter are both healthy.
“What brought me through this treatment was that I had this baby so it made what could be a really sad time not being able to focus on that and focus on her,” she said.
Written by Isaac Olson, with files from Aatefeh Padidar