Screening trial of human papillomavirus for early detection of cervical cancer in Santiago, Chile

Abstract

Cervical cancer mortality in Chile is four times higher than in developed countries. We compared the accuracy of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing and conventional Papanicolaou (Pap) testing to detect prevalent precancerous and cancerous lesions in the routine clinical practice of the public health system. Women aged 25 years and older residing in the area covered by three primary care centers of Santiago, Chile, were invited to participate. Eligible women received both HPV DNA (Hybrid Capture 2) and Pap testing. Women positive by either test (Pap: ASCUS+, HC2: RLU/CO ≥1.0) underwent colposcopy and biopsy, as did a sample of double-negative women with an abnormal cervix at visual inspection or with risk factors for cervical lesions. Crude and verification bias-corrected sensitivities and specificities were estimated. In total, 8,265 women (98.8% of eligible) had complete screening results. Of these, 10.7% were HPV positive, 1.7% were Pap positive and 1.1% were positive by both tests. In all, 931 (11.3%) women were screen-positive, of whom 94.3% attended colposcopy. Additionally, 295 control women were invited for colposcopy, of whom 78% attended. In all, 42 CIN2, 45 CIN3 and 9 cancers were identified. Verification bias-corrected sensitivity for CIN2+ (95% confidence interval) was 92.7% (84.4–96.8) for HPV and 22.1% (16.4–29.2) for Pap; corresponding specificities were 92.0% (91.4–92.6) and 98.9% (98.7–99.0). In conclusion, in routine clinical practice in a developing country, HPV testing was four times more sensitive for CIN2+ than Pap testing, identifying three times more CIN2+ lesions; HPV testing was easily implemented in our established cervical cancer prevention program.