Professor Lorincz said of the results: "The data confirms that HR-HPV DNA testing is much more sensitive than cytology and that HPV testing also identifies women with high risk of serious cervical disease in an efficient and medically acceptable manner.

"The advantage of this new cervical cancer screening approach is that women who are HPV DNA positive can be quickly referred to colposcopy (within one year), thus catching the vast majority of the precancers and cancers. In contrast women who are HPV DNA negative can be safely made subject to much longer screening intervals (5 to 10 years) saving considerable costs for the Mexican health system. "

'A pilot study of HPV DNA and cytology testing in 50,159 women in the routine Mexican Social Security Program,' is published online today (8 July 2010) in Cancer Causes & Control.

Source: Queen Mary, University of London