FRIDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- Providing women at high risk for human papillomavirus (HPV) who do not attend regular screening with a kit that allows them to self-collect cervicovaginal samples can help boost the reach of screening programs and the HPV detection rate, according to a study published online March 11 in BMJ.
Murat Gök, of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a study of 28,073 women who did not respond to two invitations to attend a regular cervical screening program, of whom 27,792 were offered a device to self-collect cervicovaginal samples for HPV testing, while 281 were assigned to the control group and offered another cervical cytology appointment.
Compared with the control group, compliance in the intervention group was higher, at 26.6 versus 16.4 percent, the researchers found. Self-sampling detected 99 lesions (1.3 percent) at or above cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) II and 76 lesions at or above CIN III (1 percent), the investigators discovered.
"Offering self-sampling by sending a device for collecting cervicovaginal specimens for high-risk HPV testing to women who did not attend regular screening is a feasible and effective method of increasing coverage in a screening program. The response rate and yield of high-grade lesions support implementation of this method for such women," the authors write.
The study was partly funded by Delphi Bioscience (formerly Pantarhei Devices), which provided the self-sampling kits. Qiagen also provided materials for the study. Some study authors reported financial ties to these companies.
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