Open Access
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol 2022; 43(01): 103-108
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1742642
Brief Communication

Cross-Sectional Study of HPV Self-Sampling among Indian Women—A Way Forward

Kavita V. Anand
1   Department of Preventive Oncology, Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
1   Department of Preventive Oncology, Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
1   Department of Preventive Oncology, Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Sanjay K. Biswas
2   Department of Microbiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
Vasundhara Y. Kulkarni
1   Department of Preventive Oncology, Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
,
2   Department of Microbiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
› Author Affiliations

Funding This work was supported by the Terry Fox Foundation, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A4Y6.
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Abstract

Molecular human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA is a recommended test for any country planning cervical cancer screening as a national policy. The emerging literature proposes HPV self-sampling (HPV-SS) as a feasible implementing strategy in low-income settings. The success of this strategy would depend on developing impactful health education materials, understanding modalities toward generating awareness, and precision in performing the screening test among beneficiaries. The current paper is an interim analysis of ongoing research undertaken to understand the acceptability of HPV-SS among Indian women across different community settings. The study design has two modalities for generating awareness: (1) health education arm wherein the awareness and steps of collecting self-sample are explained by health personnel, and (2) the pamphlet arm wherein pictorial illustrations depicting the steps to conduct HPV-SS are distributed among women. The quality of samples is compared with primary health worker samples (PHW-S). Initial results of this study support the acceptance of HPV-SS (97%) among urban slum settings. An agreement between HPV-SS and PHW-S was demonstrated to be 95.1%. The results of the pamphlet arm were comparable to the health education arm in every aspect. The art-based strategy seems like a promising communication modality for generating awareness toward cervical cancer screening using HPV-SS in low-resource settings.

Work to be Credited

This work is credited to the Department of Preventive Oncology, Centre for Cancer Epidemiology (CCE), Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), Mumbai.


Approval by all Authors

This manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors and represents honest work.


CTRI No

CTRI/2020/09/027748.




Publication History

Article published online:
16 February 2022

© 2022. Indian Society of Medical and Paediatric Oncology. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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