Prevalence and Genotype Distribution among Women Attending Cervical Cancer Screening Mobile Unit in Lampang, Thailand

Cervical cancer remains the major health problem among Thai women, particularly among those living in Northern Thailand. In the recent population-based survey, areas reported to have a highest incidence of cervical cancer are in Northern Thailand. In Chiang Mai Province, an age-standardized incidence rate (ASR) of cervical cancer is 28.9 per 100,000, followed by Lampang Province (ASR, 22.4) (Moore et al., 2010). Infection with certain subtypes of human papillomavirus (HPV), the so-called “high-risk (HR)” or “oncogenic type” is a necessary step in cervical carcinogenesis. Growing body of literature show that identifying type-specific HPV infections has impacted on various steps of cervical cancer prevention. For primary prevention,efficacy of prophylactic HPV vaccine, a type-specific vaccine depends on genotype distribution of oncogenic HPV in each population. In screening approach, women with cytology-negative/HR-HPV positive carry a certain risk of harboring high-grade cervical disease which is even more striking among those with HPV 16/18(Khan et al., 2005; Wright et al., 2011). Additionally, subtype of HR-HPV has been note to influence the performances of colposcopy (van der Marel et al., 2014). Findings obtained from a meta-analysis reviewing the worldwide prevalence