A tough haul for cancer test.

Byline: Tricia Bishop

Jan. 21--With a new vaccine on the market to prevent it and multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns highlighting it, the cervical-cancer-causing human papillomavirus -- or HPV -- might be the most talked-about sexually transmitted disease since HIV. Yet a seven-year-old test designed to detect its most dangerous strains in women still isn't used in 4 out of the 5 gynecological exams it's approved for, according to Digene Corp., the Gaithersburg company that makes the test. And the recent attention to the virus has led other women to request the test when it isn't right for them. The lack of use may be putting women at risk of developing a preventable cancer, some health care workers fear, which has led to revamped medical guidelines and grass roots efforts to educate professionals and the public about the test. "Sometimes the [full] information doesn't get out to everybody," said Susan Wysocki, president and chief executive of the National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health. Last week, her organization put out medical guidelines suggesting nurse practitioners take advantage of the HPV test where…