 |
|
|
A new cervical cancer test, called careHPV,
by Qiagen was 90 percent accurate in detecting cervical cancer in women aged
30-54 in rural areas of eastern China.
Cervical cancer affects nearly 5,000,000
women around the world every year and more than 270,000 women die from cervical
cancer each year. 493,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, more than 80
percent of them in developing countries.
The rapid test is designed to be used in rural
and resource-poor settings of developing world.
Qiagen’s rapid HPV test was 90 percent accurate
in detecting cervical cancer, compared to Pap testing (cytology), for which the
sensitivity was 85 percent, You-lin Qiao and his colleagues reported in the
study published in The Lancet Oncology. In the developed countries, Pap test is
the standard screen for cervical disease, supplemented by HPV testing. But the
techniques are expensive and require “a level of infrastructure unattainable in
most of the developing world,” the researchers said.
The trial involved 2,388 women in Shanxi in eastern China. The careHPV test can detect
14 types of the human papillomavirus in around 2 and a half hours. The test
does not require reliable electricity supplies or running water and can be used
by non-technical support staff. The development of the test and the China study were
partly funded by the Belinda Gates Foundation.
“The ability of the careHPV test to detect
precancerous cells was found to be 90 percent; 84.2 percent of the women without
precancerous disease were identified as negative by the test,” the researchers
said in a statement.
The careHPV test could provide an effective
primary screening method for cervical cancer prevention in rural and low-resource
settings, the study’s authors concluded. Cervical cancer is caused by “high-risk”
types of the human papillomavirus, which are sexually transmitted.
© 2007 - 2008 - eFluxMedia