Self-sampling of vaginal fluid and high-risk human papillomavirus testing in women aged 50 years or older not attending Papanicolaou smear screening

Please cite this paper as: Lindell M, Sanner K, Wikström I, Wilander E. Self‐sampling of vaginal fluid and high‐risk human papillomavirus testing in women aged 50 years or older not attending Papanicolaou smear screening. BJOG 2012;119:245–248. Objectives To study the value of self‐sampling of vaginal fluid at home in combination with high‐risk human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in a cohort of older women not attending Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screening. Design Women (n = 3618), aged 50–65 years, who had not attended screening for at least 6 years were offered self‐sampling of vaginal fluid at home (study cohort). The collected material was analysed for the presence of high‐risk HPV (using Hybrid capture 2; Hc2). Women with a positive HPV test were referred for colposcopy. These results were compared with the results of Pap smear screening in a corresponding age group of women (controls). The end point of the study was identification of a histological cervical intraepithelial neoplasia stage 2 (CIN2) and above (CIN2+). Results In all, 39.4% (n = 1426) women participated and 4.6% (n = 66) were high‐risk HPV positive. Of the HPV‐positive women 56 chose to attend a surgery (84.8%) after a mean time of 2.1 months and ten of these women (17.9%) showed CIN2+, corresponding to 0.70% of all participating women. In the controls, who participated in organised Pap smear screening, the prevalence of CIN2+ was 0.25% (15/6048). The odds ratio for identification of CIN2+ in women aged 50 years or older performing self‐sampling and HPV test in comparison with Pap smear was: 2.84 (95% CI 1.14–6.77, P = 0.0174). In older women primary high‐risk HPV testing (Hc2) and Pap smear screening showed equal specificity of around 96%. Conclusions Self‐sampling of vaginal fluid in combination with high‐risk HPV testing appears to be an attractive method to improve screening coverage and decrease the prevalence of cervical cancer in women aged 50 years or older.