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Large Scale Study Shows HPV Testing Reduces Cervical Cancer Deaths
The April 2, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) featured results from an 8-year, 130,000-patient International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) cervical cancer screening trial demonstrating that, in low-resource settings, a single round of HPV testing significantly reduces the numbers of advanced cervical cancers and deaths
The trial included the following details:
- 131,746 healthy women in India aged 30-59 years, randomly assigned to four groups:
- Screening by the digene HPV Test (34,126), Pap (32,058), visual inspection with acetic acid - VIA (34,074) or Control – only counseling (31,488)
- Women who had positive results on screening underwent colposcopy and biopsy
- Women with precancerous lesions or cancer received treatment
Key findings:
- Direct quote: “Our study found that a single round of HPV testing was associated with a significant decline in the rate of advanced cervical cancer and associated deaths...”
- Direct quote: “We found that HPV testing was the most objective and reproducible of all cervical screening tests and was less demanding in terms of training and quality assurance.”
Other important points from the study:
- HPV testing has the highest negative predictive value of all three modalities.
- There were no cancer deaths among the HPV-negative women in the HPV testing group during the eight-year period.
To access a copy of the study and the accompanying editorial from the National Cancer Institute, please visit:
IARC Study: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/14/1385
NCI Editorial: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/14/1453
Read global media coverage of the study findings:
