Vaginal and Urine Self-sampling Compared to Cervical Sampling for HPV-testing with the Cobas 4800 HPV Test.

BACKGROUND/AIM: To compare human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA detection in self-collected vaginal and urine samples with clinician-taken cervical samples in relation to histology.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Self-collected vaginal, urine and clinician-taken cervical samples were analyzed from 218 women with the Cobas 4800 HPV test (Roche Molecular Diagnostics).

RESULTS: The sensitivity for detection of HPV in the vaginal self-sampling test was 96.4% and in urine was 83.9% relative to detection by clinician-taken cervical sample. The vaginal self-sampling and the clinician-taken HPV tests had the same sensitivity of 92.8% (95% confidence interval=86.3-96.8%) and specificity for detection of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS). Detection in urine samples had a sensitivity of 76.3% (95% confidence interval=67.9-84.2%) for HSIL/AIS.

CONCLUSION: The Cobas 4800 HPV test detects high-grade pre-cancerous cervical lesions in self-collected vaginal samples with the same high sensitivity as in clinician-taken cervical samples.