A new human papillomavirus (HPV) test, Qiagen’s low-cost test CareHPV, designed to be used in rural areas of developing world, was 90 percent accurate in detecting cervical cancer in women aged 30-54 in rural areas of eastern China.

The findings were published in The Lancet Oncology and researchers said the rapid test could help cut mortality risk from this disease in the developing world. In the developed countries, Pap test is the standard screen for cervical disease, supplemented by HPV testing. Pap smear screening can identify potentially precancerous changes. The wide spread use of cervical screening programs has reduce the incidence of invasive cervical cancer by 50%. But both techniques require “a level of infrastructure unattainable in most of the developing world,” the researchers said. These tests are expensive, require special equipment and access to sophisticated labs. “The idea of replicating that in the developing world, where resources are scare, doesn’t make sense,” said Linda Alexander, Qiagen’s vice president of women’s health and global advocacy.

Thus, the most common cervical cancer screening tool in rural areas has been a procedure in which the woman’s cervix is painted with vinegar to highlight abnormalities. She is then visually examined by a doctor or a nurse. But the method which uses acetic acid (VIA) misses a significant number of women with cervical disease who need treatment.

In the study, researchers found the ability of this procedure to identify women who have cervical cancer in early or advanced stages was 41 percent. The trial involved 2,388 women in Shanxi in Eastern China.

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. “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 can detect 14 types of humanpapillomavirus in around 2 and a half hours; it does nor require mains electricity or running water and can be used by non-technical support staff. It gives rapid and accurate results.

“If women 30 years and older could be screened at least once in their lifetimes with such a test, and appropriate treatment administered at the same visit, public-health programs would be affordable and deaths from cervical cancer would be reduced by a third,” John Sellors of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, one of the study’s authors said. He said the results were “very promising.”

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 most important risk factor in the development of cervical cancer is the infection with a high-risk strain of humanpapillomavirus. Three types of HPV are generally acknowledged to cause about 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.

The funding for the China study was received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.