Evaluation of the performance of Human Papillomavirus testing in paired urine and clinician-collected cervical samples among women aged over 30 years in Bhutan

Aim: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of high-risk HPV (hrHPV) detection in self-collected urine samples collected in the morning and later during the day, vaginal brush-based self-samples and clinician-taken smears for detecting cervical cancer lesions in a Spanish colposcopy referral population.

Affiliations: Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Bhutan; International Agency for Research on Cancer, France; Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Bhutan; Department of Pathology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO), University of Antwerp

Summary: This study demonstrates the validity of a previously proposed protocol of urine self-collection and HPV testing for the long-term monitoring of vaccine impact in Bhutan and Rwanda (Franceschi et.al., 2017). In young women that are unwilling to undergo a gynaecological examination, this urine testing protocol is able to provide results that are broadly representative of HPV at the cervix, which is however case-by case dependent on the used HPV assay and its sensitivity.

Urine testing to monitor the impact of HPV vaccination in Bhutan and Rwanda