Do you perform pap smears as part of the surveillance of patients with a history of cervical or vaginal cancers who had radiation as part of their treatment?

I personally do not routinely perform pap testing for patients with a prior history of cervical or vaginal cancer who have had prior radiation. The main driver for me in this decision is that the results we receive from Pap testing often show abnormalities that are not reflective of recurrence or de...

No. Local recurrence will be diagnosed by visual inspection and biopsy. This is not a screening test that will almost always come back abnormal.

Cytology will almost always be abnormal after radiation.

HPV testing in HPV+ disease, however, can help prognosticate, as persistence has a higher association with recurrence or a new gynecologic primary.