This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved self-collection to test for HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer. As a researcher who has spent my career studying how to make cancer screening more accessible, especially for underserved populations, I am unbelievably excited.

HPV, or the human papillomavirus, is a group of more than 100 viruses that can be passed from person to person. It is very common; most humans...