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Project

Reaching more women in cervical cancer screening with a better prediction of their cancer risk.

Cervical cancer is a major impact on public health, causing approximately 150 deaths in Belgium each year. Despite that there is a screening program in Flanders, 37% of the population eligible for cervical cancer screening is not reached by the current program that is based on analysing cervical smears (pap smears). Here, self-sampling, potentially done at home, could pose an alternative strategy for this hard-to-reach population. Infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) is the cause of nearly all cervical cancer cases. Consequently, HPV detection is currently implemented as screening test. In case HPV is detected, an additional test (triage) is necessary to avoid overtreatment as the majority of HPV infections are spontaneously cleared and do not result in cervical cancer. For this triage the presence of aberrant cells in the pap smear is assessed. HPV detection performs well on self-samples, however, triage by detecting aberrant cells is not possible in this sample type. We will develop a test in which the detection of HPV and triage can be performed in one step on self-samples (as well as traditional cervical samples). As such we hope to reach more women and disturb less. Indeed, fewer women will need to be referred for follow-up causing less (emotional) distress. Thus, in this project we aim to reach more women in cervical cancer screening and give them a better prediction of their cancer risk.
Date:1 Jan 2023 →  Today
Keywords:CERVICAL CANCER
Disciplines:Molecular diagnostics, Epigenetics, Genetics, Cancer diagnosis, Cancer prevention