Cervical Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) DNA Primary Screening Test Results of the Experience of a Regional Laboratory in Central Italy.

Although with some limits, the introduction of HR-HPV DNA primary testing resulted feasible and effective, significantly increasing detection of severe lesions compared with the cytology screening program. During the period August 2010 October 2011 at the Laboratorio Unico di Screening of Perugia, Umbria, Italy a pilot study was conducted on the population of women 35-64 aged with HPV test as primary screening test. Results were compared with those obtained with Pap test as primary screening test in the same cohort from January 2008 to June 2010, following the screening programme used since 1999. The usual algorithm with cervical cytology as primary test is described in the fig:1a, whereas fig:1b shows the high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) DNA test algorithm used as primary screening. The two methods were compared in terms of acceptance rate of invitation, cytological results, molecular results including HPV genotype, detection rate of histological lesions. Methods