HPV self-sampling and physician-collected sampling for detection of precancerous lesions of the cervix

Collection of samples plays a pivotal role in detection of precancerous lesion. Hence, comparative study was done on 95 women to assess the performance of self-collected vaginal samples versus physician-collected cervical samples for HPV detection. HPV positivity was similar between self (14.7%) and physician-collected samples (15.8%), with comparable genotype distributions. Physician sampling detected more cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) lesions and showed higher sensitivity, whereas self-sampling demonstrated better specificity and similar overall accuracy. There was significant difference between both the parameters. Thus, physician-collected cervical sample is better than self-collected vaginal samples.