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Viruses Sep 2023In the context of cervical cancer prevention, where human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is pivotal, HPV testing is replacing Pap Smear in primary screening. This...
In the context of cervical cancer prevention, where human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is pivotal, HPV testing is replacing Pap Smear in primary screening. This transition offers an opportunity for integrating self-sampling to enhance coverage. We evaluated the accuracy of HPV testing using self-collected urine and vaginal samples, comparing them to physician-collected cervical swabs. From a cohort of 245 women with abnormal cytology, we collected self-sampled vaginal, urine, and clinician-administered cervical specimens. Employing Anyplex™II HPV28 assay, outcomes revealed HPV positivity rates of 75.1% (cervical), 78.4% (vaginal), and 77.1% (urine). Significant, hr-HPV detection concordance was observed between self-taken cervical samples and clinical counterparts (k = 0.898 for vaginal; k = 0.715 for urine). This study extends beyond accuracy, highlighting self-collected sample efficacy in detecting high-grade cervical lesions. The insight underscores self-sampling's role in bolstering participation and aligns with WHO's goal to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030.
Topics: Female; Humans; Pregnancy; Colposcopy; Human Papillomavirus Viruses; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms; Papillomavirus Infections
PubMed: 37766295
DOI: 10.3390/v15091889 -
Medicine Jul 2023The number of hospital visits with cervical cancer as the chief complaint among South Korean women aged 20 to 39 has increased by 1.2 times between 2016 and 2020,...
The number of hospital visits with cervical cancer as the chief complaint among South Korean women aged 20 to 39 has increased by 1.2 times between 2016 and 2020, indicating a need for active screening for the disease. This study aimed to investigate the status of the Papanicolaou (Pap) test and identify factors influencing Pap test experience among South Korean women aged 20 to 39 years. An online questionnaire survey was conducted over 5 days starting from November 19, 2021. A total of 338 participants who were randomly sampled by age completed the survey. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t test, χ2 test, and logistic regression. The mean age of the participants was 29.9 years, and participants with and without Pap test experience accounted for 60.7% and 39.3% of the total, respectively. There were significant differences in age, marital status, employment status, smoking status, experience of coitus, awareness of the National Cancer Screening Program, and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination status according to the Pap test experience (P < .05) of the participants. Pap test attitude, Pap test self-efficacy, cervical cancer knowledge, HPV knowledge, and cancer prevention behavior scores were significantly higher in the Pap test experience group than in the no Pap test experience group (P < .05). Logistic regression analysis showed that experience of coitus (odds ratio [OR] = 10.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.54-24.11), marital status (OR = 5.96, 95% CI: 2.25-15.77), awareness of the National Cancer Screening Program (OR = 4.39, 95% CI: 1.66-11.58), HPV vaccination (OR = 2.62, 95% CI: 1.35-5.09), employment status (OR = 2.22, 95% CI: 1.08-4.59), and self-efficacy (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.01-1.19) were the influencing factors in the Pap test experience group. To improve the Pap test screening rate among South Korean women aged 20 to 39, reinforcement strategies and intervention programs that involve age-specific approaches must be established.
Topics: Female; Humans; Adult; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms; Papillomavirus Infections; Early Detection of Cancer; Papanicolaou Test; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Mass Screening; Republic of Korea; Vaginal Smears
PubMed: 37505160
DOI: 10.1097/MD.0000000000034539 -
Ecancermedicalscience 2023Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent malignancy and common cause of mortality in women worldwide, despite being one of the most preventable female cancers.
BACKGROUND
Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent malignancy and common cause of mortality in women worldwide, despite being one of the most preventable female cancers.
OBJECTIVES
The aim of the study was to assess the awareness and knowledge of patients about cervical cancer prevention methods and the use of these methods by women in an urban setting.
METHOD
A cross-sectional study design was employed. A census was conducted to include all women ( = 153) who met the inclusion criteria and attended the gynaecology clinic of the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital from May to July 2022 for various gynaecological reasons. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire adapted from the Cervical Cancer Knowledge Prevention-64.
RESULTS
The mean age was 40.0 years and ranges between 18 and 78 years. The majority of study participants had at least a secondary school level of education (78.8%), and almost all had at least a primary school education (95.4%). Most of the respondents (64.7%) were not aware of cervical cancer. Among those who had awareness, 64.8% of them knew about the existence of prevention methods; pap smear was the most common known method of prevention. There was a statistically significant association between the respondent's educational level and knowledge of the existence of cervical cancer prevention methods and the usage of pap smear. Only 16.3% of our study population has ever used a preventive method.
CONCLUSION
More than half of the participants were not aware of cervical cancer and its preventive methods, and those who were aware had insufficient knowledge, which translated to very low usage of cervical cancer preventive methods. There is an urgent need to intensify public education on cervical cancer.
PubMed: 38414947
DOI: 10.3332/ecancer.2023.1626 -
SAGE Open Medicine 2024There are high incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer among females in East Africa. This is exacerbated by limited up-to-date data on premalignant lesions and...
Prevalence of cervical intraepithelial lesions and associated factors among women attending a cervical cancer clinic in Western Uganda; results based on Pap smear cytology.
INTRODUCTION
There are high incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer among females in East Africa. This is exacerbated by limited up-to-date data on premalignant lesions and associated factors in this setting. In this study, we determined the prevalence of cervical intraepithelial lesions and associated factors among women attending the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital cervical cancer clinic in Southwestern Uganda.
METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, 364 participants were recruited from among women attending the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital cervical cancer clinic from 1 April to 30 June 2023. On consent, the study nurse collected demographic data and Pap smears, which were microscopically examined and reported by a laboratory scientist and a pathologist following the Bethesda grading system (2014). Statistical analyses were done in STATA version 17, using proportions, Chi-square, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression analysis to determine associated factors at ⩽0.05 significance level.
RESULTS
The mean age of participants was 41.9 years. A third of all study participants (37.6%, 132/351) were contraceptive users, mostly hormonal contraceptives (87.1%, 115/132). Almost 88% (307/351) had an unknown Human Papilloma Virus status. The prevalence of cervical intraepithelial lesions among our study participants was 6.6% (23/351), of which 73.9% (17/23) were low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. More than half (9/17, 52.9%) of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions were active hormonal contraceptive users. Use of hormonal contraceptives (OR: 3.032, : 0.0253), use of intrauterine devices (OR: 6.284, : 0.039), and any family history of cervical cancer (OR: 4.144, : 0.049) were significantly associated with cervical intraepithelial lesions.
CONCLUSION
The prevalence of cervical intraepithelial lesions was 6.6%, lower than global estimates. Use of hormonal and intrauterine device contraceptives, as well as family history of cervical cancer, were significantly associated with cervical intraepithelial lesions among our study population. Prospective studies are recommended to further understand associations between different types of intrauterine devices and hormonal contraceptives, and cervical lesions.
PubMed: 38764539
DOI: 10.1177/20503121241252265 -
Cancer Causes & Control : CCC Aug 2023Belize has among the highest cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates of Latin American and Caribbean countries. This study evaluates the perspectives of key...
PURPOSE
Belize has among the highest cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates of Latin American and Caribbean countries. This study evaluates the perspectives of key stakeholders for cervical cancer screening in Belize and identifies the barriers and facilitators for providing equitable access to prevention services.
METHODS
Semi-structured interviews discussing cervical cancer screening were conducted with key stakeholders across the six districts of Belize in 2018. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed thematically; themes were organized by levels of the social-ecological model.
RESULTS
We conducted 47 interviews with health care providers (45%), administrators (17%), government officials (25%), and other stakeholders (13%). Majority (78%) of interviews were from the public sector. Perceived barriers to cervical cancer screening were identified across multiple levels: (1) Individual Patient: potential delays in Pap smear results and fear of a cancer diagnosis; (2) Provider: competing clinician responsibilities; (3) Organizational: insufficient space and training; (4) Community: reduced accessibility in rural areas; and (5) Policy: equipment and staffing budget limitations. The main facilitators we identified included the following: (1) at the Community level: resource-sharing between public and private sectors and dedicated rural outreach personnel; (2) at the Policy level: free public screening services and the establishment of population-based screening.
CONCLUSION
Despite free, publicly available cervical cancer screening in Belize, complex barriers affect access and completion of management when abnormal screening tests are identified. Provider workload, education outreach, and additional funding for training and facilities are potential areas for strengthening this program and increasing detection and management for cervical cancer control.
Topics: Female; Humans; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms; Early Detection of Cancer; Belize; Qualitative Research; Health Services Accessibility; Mass Screening
PubMed: 37165111
DOI: 10.1007/s10552-023-01703-0 -
Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) Sep 2023One of the most common types of cancer among in women is cervical cancer. Incidence and fatality rates are steadily rising, particularly in developing nations, due to a...
One of the most common types of cancer among in women is cervical cancer. Incidence and fatality rates are steadily rising, particularly in developing nations, due to a lack of screening facilities, experienced specialists, and public awareness. Visual inspection is used to screen for cervical cancer after the application of acetic acid (VIA), histopathology test, Papanicolaou (Pap) test, and human papillomavirus (HPV) test. The goal of this research is to employ a vision transformer (ViT) enhanced with shifted patch tokenization (SPT) techniques to create an integrated and robust system for automatic cervix-type identification. A vision transformer enhanced with shifted patch tokenization is used in this work to learn the distinct features between the three different cervical pre-cancerous types. The model was trained and tested on 8215 colposcopy images of the three types, obtained from the publicly available mobile-ODT dataset. The model was tested on 30% of the whole dataset and it showed a good generalization capability of 91% accuracy. The state-of-the art comparison indicated the outperformance of our model. The experimental results show that the suggested system can be employed as a decision support tool in the detection of the cervical pre-cancer transformation zone, particularly in low-resource settings with limited experience and resources.
PubMed: 37761252
DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13182884 -
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Dec 2023This study aims to determine whether a novel cervical cancer screening toolkit will increase rates of pap test completion and HPV vaccination among Somali women living... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
This study aims to determine whether a novel cervical cancer screening toolkit will increase rates of pap test completion and HPV vaccination among Somali women living in the United States. We conducted a randomized controlled, pilot trial from June 2021 to February 2022. Somali women aged 21 to 70 were randomized to either receive a toolkit (infographic, video and an in-person health seminar) or not. Health passports confirming a completed pap test and/or HPV vaccination by clinician signature were used to measure outcomes. The primary outcome was pap test completion and the secondary outcome was HPV vaccination. We enrolled 57 participants. Patients randomized to the treatment arm were significantly more likely to have had a pap test (53.7% vs. 3.7%, p < 0.0001) and were also more likely to have received the HPV vaccine (10.7% vs. 3.7%, p = 0.6110). This toolkit increased rates of pap test completion and more participants in the intervention arm received HPV vaccination, though numbers were low. The study design may serve as a reproducible model to determine the effectiveness of patient education materials.
Topics: Humans; Female; United States; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms; Early Detection of Cancer; Pilot Projects; Somalia; Papillomavirus Infections; Papanicolaou Test; Papillomavirus Vaccines; Vaginal Smears; Mass Screening
PubMed: 37071376
DOI: 10.1007/s10903-023-01455-8 -
Heliyon Jun 2024Cervical cancer is caused by changes in the cervix that lead to precancerous cells and eventually progress to cancer. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are the...
Cervical cancer is caused by changes in the cervix that lead to precancerous cells and eventually progress to cancer. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are the primary cause of cervical cancer. Early detection of HPV is crucial in preventing cervical cancer, and regular screening for HPV infection can identify cell changes before they develop into cancer. While Pap smear tests are reliable for cervical cancer screening, they are critical, expensive, and labor-intensive. Therefore, researchers are focusing on identifying blood-based biomarkers using biosensors for cervical cancer screening. HPV strains 16, 45, and 18 are common culprits in cervical cancer. This study aimed to develop an HPV-16 DNA biosensor on a zeolite-iron oxide (zeolite-IO) modified interdigitated electrode (IDE) sensor. The DNA probe was immobilized on the IDE through amine-modified zeolite-IO, enhancing the hybridization of the target and DNA probe. The detection limit of the DNA-DNA duplex was found to be 7.5 pM with an R value of 0.9868. Additionally, control experiments with single and triple mismatched sequences showed no increase in current responses, and the identification of target DNA in a serum-spiked sample indicated specific and selective target identification.
PubMed: 38845893
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31851 -
BMC Public Health Oct 2023Breast cancer and cervical cancer are among the most common cancers in women in Germany. Early detection examinations such as mammography and the cervical smear test...
BACKGROUND
Breast cancer and cervical cancer are among the most common cancers in women in Germany. Early detection examinations such as mammography and the cervical smear test (Pap-test) have been shown to contribute to the reduction in the mortality and/or incidence of these cancers and can be utilised free of charge by women in certain age groups as part of national screening programmes. Analyses show that the use of health services varies regionally, especially when comparing the federal states of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, Eastern Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, Western Germany). This study investigated to what extent the utilisation of mammography examinations and Pap-tests by women differs in federal states of former GDR and FRG.
METHODS
For this purpose, we analysed data from the nationwide health survey GEDA14/15 conducted by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in 2014 and 2015. We calculated weighted proportions and compared attendance between eastern and western German states by a Chi-Square-test. Additionally, we conducted regression analysis to adjust for socio-economic status, living environment and place of birth.
RESULTS
2,772 female participants aged 20-34 years were analysed for Pap-test attendance in the last two years and 4,323 female participants aged 50-69 years old were analysed for mammography screening attendance in the last two years. 50-69-year-old women in eastern German states were with 78.3% (95%-CI 75.3%, 81.2%) more likely to attend mammography screening than in western Germany with 73.4% (95%-CI 71.8%, 74.9%). Pap-test uptake was statistically significantly higher in the East of Germany with 83.3% (95%-CI 79.6%, 87.1%) compared to 77.5% (95%-CI 75.8%, 79.3%) in the West of Germany. This relationship was robust to adjusting for socio-economic status, living environment and place of birth.
CONCLUSIONS
Cultural influences and socialization in the GDR might explain the higher utilisation of these cancer screening examinations at least to some extent. This could have many reasons, for example a higher health awareness through education or a possible greater trust in medical structures and the associated higher compliance of women. These hypotheses should be further explored to increase the uptake of screening examinations by women in Germany.
Topics: Female; Humans; Middle Aged; Aged; Child, Preschool; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms; Germany, East; Early Detection of Cancer; Breast Neoplasms; Mammography; Health Surveys; Papanicolaou Test; Germany; Mass Screening; Vaginal Smears
PubMed: 37798695
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-023-16849-4 -
Ciencia & Saude Coletiva Nov 2023This article aims to evaluate the performance of preconception health indicators according to sociodemographic characteristics among Brazilian women of reproductive age....
This article aims to evaluate the performance of preconception health indicators according to sociodemographic characteristics among Brazilian women of reproductive age. We conducted a descriptive epidemiological study using data from 21,645 and 25,228 women, respectively, who responded the 2013 and 2019 national health surveys, and data for the period 2010 to 2020 derived from the national health system's Department of Informatics (DATASUS). We calculated the prevalence of indicators according to sociodemographic characteristics and statistical significance of differences was measured using Pearson's chi-squared test. Syphilis and HIV incidence rates were also calculated. There was an increase in the prevalence of access to health service indicators (medical and dental consultations and recent Pap smear). However, there was an increase in the prevalence of hypertension, alcohol use, and obesity. The prevalence of use of contraceptive methods and fertility treatment remained stable. Syphilis incidence increased sevenfold between 2010 and 2020. Black/brown women with a low level of education, higher parity, and living in the North or Northeast performed worse for preconception health indicators. Despite the increase in access to health services, performance on preconception health indicators declined and health inequities continued.
Topics: Pregnancy; Humans; Female; Preconception Care; Syphilis; Prevalence; Brazil; Contraception
PubMed: 37971017
DOI: 10.1590/1413-812320232811.16282022