evidence: Indeed, the reductions in HPV infections and precancerous cells "are a first sign that vaccination could eventually lead to the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem," the study's lead author, Mélanie Drolet, an epidemiologist at Laval University in Canada, said in a statement. [...] In particular, the study found the HPV vaccine led to a reduction in the rates of abnormal pap smear findings. Pap smears are used to detect abnormal cells in the cervix that can sometimes develop into cancer. Five to nine years after a population was vaccinated against HPV, the researchers found a more than 50 percent reduction in cases of these pre-cancerous cells in girls 15 to 19. In vaccinated women 20 to 24, there were one-third fewer cases of these cells. [...] Whether or not a person has received the HPV vaccine, getting cervical cells regularly tested — through Pap tests and HPV screening — is still a crucial to reducing cases of cervical cancer and early detection, said Diane Harper, senior associate director of the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research. Rates of invasive cervical cancer dropped significantly in the U.S. when cancer screening was introduced in the 1940s, and there were less than half the number of cases in 2007 that there were in 1973, largely due to screening.