According to the World Health Organization, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally.
In the UK, Cancer Research UK estimates there are roughly 3,300 new cases of cervical cancer annually, and interestingly, 99.8% of these cases are thought to be preventable.
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Almost all cervical cancer cases are caused by infections of certain high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV), which, in the UK, can be identified through the standard in-person cervical screening test.
All people with a cervix living in the UK are invited to attend screenings from age 25 onwards; however, many people miss out on these appointments, not only due to reluctance to go through the procedure but also because of busy schedules and difficulties getting appointments.
Many countries have utilised ‘self-sampling’ as a method for detecting HPV to combat this, whereby women can collect their own samples at home.
In research published last month in The Lancet, Lim and colleagues assessed results from the YouScreen study that found that, when self-sampling was included in the English Cervical Screening Programme, there was a 12% increase in people who would typically not attend screenings in person being screened for HPV (intention-to-treat analysis).
The YouScreen study was an implementation feasibility trial of HPV self-screening whereby nonattenders of in-person screenings (those aged 25-64 years old who were six months overdue for screening) were offered the chance to carry out self-sampling.
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By GlobalDataIt was introduced to general practitioner (GP) practices in London known to be areas of low coverage for in-person screening between 13 January 2021 and 30 November 2021.
Nonattendees were offered the kit whenever they visited the GP, or they were mailed the kit.
In total, 131 GP practices took part in the study and 27,840 women were offered a self-screening kit.
It was found that 65.5% of women who accepted the kit when offered at the GP surgery provided a sample, compared to 12.9% of those who were mailed the kit.
Based on these results, researchers proposed that a routine rollout of self-screening tests would result in a change in coverage of 69.9% to 77.3% of screening over a three-year screening round in England.
As well as this, those of minority ethnic and deprived backgrounds, who are typically underrepresented in in-person cervical screening, were well-represented in self-sampling cervical screening.
This study suggests that self-screening tests could be critical in not only improving coverage of HPV screening as a whole but also for improving the inclusivity of screening, therefore improving health equity.
The number of those with cervical cancer is expected to rise in the UK, with GlobalData (a leading data and analytics company) epidemiologists predicting five-year diagnosed prevalent cases for women 18 and above to increase from 11,400 in 2024 to 11,700 in 2030.
As well as this, diagnosed incident cases of cervical cancer for women 18 and above are expected to increase from 3,100 in 2024 to 3,300 in 2030.
Therefore, an increase in screening uptake could prove instrumental in changing this trend.
