A self-administered test can help empower women in identifying risks for cervical cancer.
A new study published Dec. 12 in the journal PLOS Medicine shows the self-test for human papillomavirus (HPV) infection accurately identified women who either had cervical cancer or precancerous cells in their cervix.
"About 40% of women in our high-risk group had been diagnosed with the severe cervical precancer or cancer that requires treatment,” said lead researcher Jiayao Lei, an assistant professor of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
“Therefore, our recommendation for the future is that this group be referred directly for further investigation with colposcopy [a medical procedure typically performed following abnormal Pap smear results]," Lei added in an institute news release.
These results come roughly a week after a leading panel of preventive medicine experts decided to recommend that women 30 and older should have the option of collecting their own vaginal samples for testing, in lieu of a complete pelvic exam.
“Women who would be more comfortable collecting their HPV test sample themselves can now do so,” Dr. Esa Davis, a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), said in a release announcing the new guidance. “We hope that this new, effective option helps even more women get screened regularly.”
The USPSTF guidance follows the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of a self-testing kit for cervical cancer last May. That test should be repeated every five years from age 30 until 65, when most women can stop screening, the task force said.
For the new study, researchers analyzed data from 855 women with a positive HPV self-test. They then sorted the women into high-, medium- or low-risk groups based on the type of HPV they had and how much virus was present in their self-test.
They found that a little more than 8% of these women had either cancer or precancerous cells — about two out of five women in the high-risk HPV group.
On the other hand, more than half who tested positive fell into the low-risk group, with an overall 4% likelihood of being diagnosed with severe cervical pre-cancer or full-fledged cervical cancer within the next year, researchers said.
"We consider it would be safe for the low-risk group to be retested after 12 months," senior researcher Peter Sasieni, a professor at Queen Mary University of London, said. “The moderate-risk group should be encouraged to get tested by clinicians.”
The research team plans to perform a larger-scale study based on self-tests in Sweden in the future.