Evaluation of a multiplex real time PCR assay for the detection of human papillomavirus infections on self-collected cervicovaginal lavage samples

Self-collection of cervical samples for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing can help to raise the participation rate in cervical cancer screening among non-responders. This study was conducted to compare the analytical and clinical performance of the Abbott RealTime High-Risk HPV Test (RealTime) with the Hybrid Capture 2 assay (HC2) on self-collected cervicovaginal lavage samples. One hundred samples from women referred for colposcopy (reference smears and biopsies in case of abnormalities) were included. Fifty-seven women had a normal cytology, 27 had low grade and 16 had high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions. Fourteen of 49 biopsies (28.6%) were benign, 14 (28.6%) cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 1, 11 (22.4%) cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2, 8 (16.3%) cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 and 2 (4.1%) invasive cancer. The agreement between RealTime and HC2 in the self-collected and in the reference samples was 85% (κ = 0.665) and 83% (κ = 0.620), respectively. The agreement between self-sampling and the reference smears was higher with RealTime (93%; κ = 0.849) than with HC2 (89%; κ = 0.741). In the self-collected samples, the sensitivity and specificity for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 or worse of RealTime/HC2 were 81.0%/66.7% (p = 0.25) and 53.6%/57.1%, respectively. The sensitivity for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 or worse of RealTime and HC2 were 80.0% and 70.0% (p = 1.0). The specificity for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 or worse was 43.6% (RealTime) and 51.3% (HC2). This study shows that RealTime can be used for HR-HPV testing of self-collected lavage samples in a referral population with at least equal quality and performance as HC2.