HPV self-sampling could enable one million more women access life-saving cervical cancer checks

This news takes us a step closer to having options out there to help non-attenders to take the first step on the screening pathway and find out whether they have high-risk HPV.  
 
The self-sampling HPV kit is a vaginal swab, like a long cotton bud, which can be done yourself, or done by a nurse or doctor, to get a sample from inside the vagina. This means that women and people with a cervix who haven’t attended cervical screening and find it difficult for whatever reason can, in the comfort of their own home, or privately in the GP’s toilets, take a sample from inside their vagina without a speculum or nurse or doctor present to find out if they have high-risk HPV. If they take the sample at home they could post it for free directly to the lab for testing. 
 
If they did have high-risk HPV they would need to go into the GP surgery to have a standard cervical screening test done so that their cervical cells can be checked for any cell changes.  
 
13 in every 100 people who go for their screening get a positive result for high-risk HPV, so for the majority the self-sampling kit will be all they need to do.  
 
The trial was run in 133 GP practices in north and east London and led by King’s College London*. Women and people with a cervix who were at least six months overdue their screening test were offered HPV self-sampling, either by being contacted by post or being opportunistically offered the test when they were at the GP for another reason.  
 
Throughout the trial the test was offered to 27,000 people. 56% of people offered the HPV self-sampling test when they were at their GP surgery for something else took up the offer (of these, 65% did the self-test), and 13% of people took up the test when contacted about it via post.