By Kate Kelland
Reuters

A simple urine test to your virus that triggers cervical cancer could have a less invasive and many more acceptable solution to the conventional cervical smear test, researchers said on Tuesday.

In research comparing the precision of urine sample testing with smear testing conducted by using a doctor, scientists from Britain and Spain found the outcome were good and said making use of the urine test to detect human papillomavirus (HPV) may result in more women receiving be screened.

“The detection of HPV in urine is non-invasive, easy to get at and acceptable to women, and also a test with one of these qualities could considerably increase uptake,” the study said on Tuesday in thebmj.com, the webs sort of the British Medical Journal.

The study, which analyzed 14 studies involving 1,443 promiscuous person women, was led by Neha Pathak on the women’s health research unit at Queen Mary University of London. Weighed against cervical smear samples, urine HPV testing had a comprehensive sensitivity — the proportion of positives correctly identified — of 87 percent, and a specificity — the proportion of negatives correctly identified — of 94 percent.

Urine testing with the particularly high risk strains of HPV that cause nearly all cervical cancer cases, had a general sensitivity of 73 percent and a specificity of 98 percent in comparison to cervical samples.

HPV is among the most commonly encountered sexually transmitted infections, with as much as 80 percent of sexually active women infected sooner or later in their lives.

Infection with specific danger strains of HPV may cause cervical cancer, which kills around 266,000 women a year globally, based on the World Health Organization.

By the far the majority cervical cancer deaths are typically in poorer countries where entry to screening and prevention methods is less available.

In a smear test, an instrument referred to as a speculum is inserted on the vagina permitting accessibility to cervix plus a brush is used to gather cells through the top of the cervix.

In wealthier civilized world, cervical screening for HPV has been around in destination for ages and have had time to capture many potential cancer cases before they develop.

More recently, national immunization programs using vaccines from drugmakers Merck and GlaxoSmithKline happen to be launched to defend girls from HPV.

Yet in developing nations, where some 445,000 cases were diagnosed and 230,000 women died of cervical cancer this year, infrastructures haven\’t been created run national screening programs and HPV vaccination continues to be rare.

In a commentary on Pathak’s study, Henry Kitchener, professor and chair of gynecological oncology at Manchester University noted that along with the western world for example Britain, by way of example, cervical screening coverage has fallen below 80 % in recent times.

This is partly due to some complacency about cervical cancer simply because it starts to be come less frequent, he was quoted saying, but will also partly due to emotional factors for instance embarrassment or concern with an invasive speculum examination.

Using a urine test smear could persuade those reluctant women to return for normal screening, Kitchener said, while in lower income countries that lack infrastructure “self sampling (urine testing) might be beneficial and value effective for all women who meet the requirements for screening”.