A systematic review of the role of human papilloma virus (HPV) testing within a cervical screening programme: summary and conclusions

A systematic review of the available evidence on the role of HPV testing in cervical screening has been published by the Health Technology Assessment Committee of the UK Department of Health. The review summarized relevant data on testing methods, natural history, and prevalence of the virus in diff...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of cancer 2000-09, Vol.83 (5), p.561-565
Main Authors: Cuzick, J, Sasieni, P, Davies, P, Adams, J, Normand, C, Frater, A, van Ballegooijen, M, van den Akker-van Marle, E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Cancer Research
Cellular biology
Cervical cancer
Cervix
Cost analysis
Data processing
Databases, Factual
Drug Resistance
Epidemiology
Female
Female genital diseases
General aspects
Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics
Health services
Human papillomavirus
Humans
Invasiveness
Language
Mass Screening
Medical research
Medical sciences
Medical screening
Middle Aged
Molecular Medicine
Oncology
Papillomaviridae - isolation & purification
Papillomavirus Infections - diagnosis
Planification. Prevention (methods). Intervention. Evaluation
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Regular
regular-article
Reviews
Systematic review
Tumor Virus Infections - diagnosis
Tumors
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - diagnosis
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms - virology
Vaginal Smears
Womens health
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Description
Summary:A systematic review of the available evidence on the role of HPV testing in cervical screening has been published by the Health Technology Assessment Committee of the UK Department of Health. The review summarized relevant data on testing methods, natural history, and prevalence of the virus in different disease groups. Cost-effectiveness modelling was undertaken. Ten major conclusions were reached and are reported here. The key conclusions were that HPV testing was more sensitive than cytology, but that there were concerns about specificity, especially in young women. The increased sensitivity led to a recommendation that HPV testing be introduced on a pilot basis for women with borderline and mild smears. HPV testing has great potential as a primary screening test, but large trials are needed to properly evaluate this application and to determine if its introduction can reduce invasive cancer rates. There is an urgent need to undertake a large trial of HPV testing in conjunction with other new technologies (liquid-based cytology and computer-assisted cytology reading) to determine the best way to integrate them into ongoing screening programmes. A range of issues including the age to start and stop screening, the appropriate screening interval, the role of self-sampling for HPV testing and the choice of primary test (HPV and/or cytology) require further evaluation. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaign
ISSN:0007-0920
1532-1827
DOI:10.1054/bjoc.2000.1375