"A new study from the University  of Illinois confirms a link between  routine Pap smear screenings and a lower risk of de veloping cervical cancer in women  over age . However most American health guidelin es discourage women in that age  range from receiving screenings unless they have pr eexisting risk factors.  The new findings are published in the journal  Gynecologic Oncology .  Some studies report that Pap smears are unnecessar y in older age while others show  that there is a benefit in the over age group  said  Karin Rosenblatt  a cancer  epidemiologist and a professor of kinesiology and c ommunity health at Illinois. Theres  been a great debate about it.  Early research on cervical cancer screenings recomm ended not testing women over  age . This suggested age cutoff for screening was  increased in recent years as the  disease and risk factors are better understood.  While the incidence of cervical cancer is greater  in adult women under the age of   years those over  tend to have more fatal cases  of the disease Rosenblatt said.  When detected early  often via a Pap test  prema lignant cervical cancer tissue can be  removed or treated so it does not progress into mal ignant cancer.  If you have regular Pap smears there is a greater  chance the doctor will catch it before  it progresses to malignant cervical cancer Rosenb latt said.  She assessed whether regular Pap tests reduce the r isk of cervical cancer specifically  in women over age .  Rosenblatt and her team looked at Medicare billing  data from  and extracted  information for more than  women who had been  recently diagnosed with cervical  cancer as well as a group of more than  pati ents who had no cancer diagnosis.  The researchers determined which of the patients ha d received a screening Pap smear  two to seven years prior to diagnosis.  We found that the newly diagnosed cervical cancer  group was less likely to have had a  Pap smear compared with the control group Rosenb latt said.  These results imply that routine Pap tests are bene ficial for preventing malignant  cervical cancer in women over  she said.  Rosenblatt said there needs to be a more thorough c ostbenefit analysis of conducting  the screenings in elderly women. While there is a c lear benefit of diagnosing cervical  cancer for some groups such as those with short li fe expectancy or comorbid illnesses  screenings may be unnecessarily invasive.  There needs to be further study of the benefits an d risks of doing Pap smears in the  elderly Rosenblatt said. Future studies should co mprehensively assess cervical cancer  screenings in older women and more accurately infor m health policy recommendations."