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LONDON, November 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --
As the new cobas HPV test from Roche is accepted for the national cervical cancer screening programme in England for use at triage, further research also supports the use of Roche's cobas HPV test in "primary" screening as part of a more sensitive and more efficient strategy in the fight against cervical cancer
Data from a sub-analysis of the ATHENA (Addressing THE Need for Advanced HPV Diagnostics) landmark study, recently published online in The Lancet Oncology, demonstrated that the Roche cobas HPV Test, could be used for the primary screening of cervical cancer. The data also showed that identifying women with HPV 16 and/or 18, the two genotypes detected in approximately 70 per cent of cervical cancers, provided important predictive information to determine a woman's risk of cervical disease.
Current guidelines for cervical cancer screening allow for cytology testing (Pap test) to determine the risk of cervical cancer. However, data demonstrated that HPV DNA testing as primary (first-line) screening identified cervical disease at a higher rate than cytology alone. These results indicate that HPV testing for pooled high risk HPV with simultaneous HPV 16 and HPV 18 genotyping, could provide a more sensitive and more efficient strategy for cervical cancer screening. "The ATHENA study continues to provide ample data to help refine and advance HPV screening," said Mark H. Stoler, MD, Professor and Associate Director of Surgical Pathology and Cytopathology at the University of Virginia Health System. "These new data suggest that HPV testing is an efficient, reliable and potentially cost-effective primary screening tool. Moreover, the use of the HPV 16 and 18 genotyping information provided by the cobas® HPV Test or reflex cytology, would offer a rational approach for determining which HPV po
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