Cervical cancer: improved screening through HPV risk groups

Assistant Professor Jiayao Lei

Image source: Karolinska Institutet; photo: private

The study is based on British women who were offered a self-test for HPV in a trial because they were overdue for their cervical cancer screening. "Self-testing for HPV has become an important component in cervical screening. It reaches women who would not otherwise participate," says Jiayao Lei, assistant professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, who is the lead author of the study. 

The study, conducted in primary care centres in England, included 855 women with a positive HPV self-test, i.e. indicative of HPV infections, and had a subsequent clinician-sample. It was found that 71 of these women (8.3%) had the severe cervical precancer or cancer. 

The researchers looked at the details of the HPV test results on self-sample and used a new method to assess the risk of severe cellular changes. The risk stratification is based on the variant of the HPV virus and the amount of virus (measured as the cycle threshold, Ct value) present in the self-test. Using this, they divided the women into three risk groups: high, medium and low risk. Women with HPV type 16 and a low Ct value (