[Integrating HPV testing for primary screening?]

Cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in young women in France, is still today imperfectly screened even with the advent of primary prevention for this cancer in the form of prophylactic HPV vaccination. Indeed, the cervical Pap smear and its cytologic analysis, both operator and reader dependent, have limited sensitivities requiring repeated samplings and above all, producing a high rate of falsely negative tests. Although most cancers occur in women who are either not or insufficiently screened, the problem with cervical smears is the fact that cancers are also often diagnosed in young women having follow-ups in accordance with professional guidelines. The absence of an organized screening in France results in an inadequate female population coverage. Nowadays, it is unanimously recognized that high-risk papillomaviruses (HR HPV) represent the only independent risk factor for cervical cancer and that there cannot be any disease without this virus. It is therefore this strong association between a viral agent and the cervical cancer which opened the door firstly, to the notion of prophylactic vaccination and secondly, to the integration of HR HPV testing in the screening for precancerous lesions. Molecular biological techniques based on the HR HPV genome detection within the female genital tract have shown a very high sensitivity without any inter and intraobserver variability and an excellent negative predictive value. Their integration in the primary screening for cervical cancer would improve the relevance of the latter and would suit the need for a wider population coverage and even for an organized screening thanks to the possibility for self-sampling. The specificity of these tests is inferior to that of the cervical smear, but the management of the falsely positive HPV tests has proved to be efficient by sorting residual cells obtained from liquid-based cytology. What is urgent in France is the need for an organized screening programme in order to improve population coverage and, this does not go against neither a vaccination promotion nor the integration of new technologies. Moreover, the last three randomized trials published in October 2007 have shown that it was quite safely possible to extend the time interval between two consecutive viral testing and thus improving the cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening. The aim of this work was to analyze publications on the subject in order to conclude, according to proof levels obtained by different studies, on its usefulness in the secondary prevention of cervical cancer.