Cobas HPV test (Roche) offers sensitive primary screening strategy for cervical cancer

A sub-analysis of the ATHENA study demonstrates that the Cobas HPV Test, from Roche, could be used for the primary screening of Cervical Cancer. The data, published recently in The Lancet Oncology also showed that identifying women with HPV 16 and/or 18, the two genotypes detected in approximately 70 per cent of Cervical Cancers, provided important predictive information to determine a woman's risk of cervical disease. The data demonstrated that HPV DNA testing as primary (first-line) screening identified cervical disease at a higher rate than cytology alone. These results indicate that HPV testing for pooled high risk HPV with simultaneous HPV 16 and HPV 18 genotyping, could provide a more sensitive and more efficient strategy for Cervical Cancer screening. The Cobas HPV Test is the only FDA and CE-IVD approved screening test available that individually identifies genotypes 16 and 18, while simultaneously detecting 12 other high-risk HPV genotypes. In a separate study published by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, a Dutch team validated the Cobas HPV Test for use in primary screening for Cervical Cancer. The Netherlands was one of the first European nations to announce its intention to use HPV testing as a primary screen for Cervical Cancer. See: "Performance of carcinogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) testing and HPV16 or HPV18 genotyping for cervical cancer screening of women aged 25 years and older: a subanalysis of the ATHENA study" by Philip Castle et al, The Lancet Oncology, Vol. 12 No. 9 pp 880-890.