Pap tests may be a thing of the past, according to a breakthrough study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Instead, DNA tests, which can detect the virus that causes cervical cancer, may be the test of choice for women 30 and over.

You’d still take a sample with a swab, as you do with a Pap smear, but the DNA test would be recommended just every three years (or perhaps even less often), rather than every year. And unlike the Pap smear, which looks for abnormal cancerous cells growing, the DNA swab finds the actual virus that causes the cancer in the first place. That’s why it could be better: Detection and treatment can be earlier.

The eight-year study of 130,000 women in India, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also could be a major boon for women in undeveloped countries who have limited access to Pap tests and health care at the moment. The DNA test is cheap ($5) and can be processed by a machine, rather than being read by a pathologist (like a Pap). The fact that it doesn’t have to be done as often is another plus.

The study is "another nail in the coffin" for Pap smears, which will soon be of mainly historical interest," Stanford medical school professor Dr. Paul D. Blumenthal, told The New York Times. We’re counting the days.