Feasibility of Self Collected Cervical Cancer Samples
GHL Solutions
Connecting You to Research, Education and Business Development Solutions for today’s world
We know that Cervical Cancer remains one of the biggest killers of women in many countries. The World Health Organization supports self-collected HPV samples to help stem the tide on HPV that causes Cervical Cancer. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6307066/)One study proposes that "The integration of a self-collected cervical cancer screening program using HPV testing within existing community-based primary health care services could increase access to screening and reduce cervical cancer rates among Ugandan women."
So, I was curious about that so I went to the National Library of Medicine at NIH
Apparently a study was done to look at the feasibility of this approach. I found this study in Malawi, which is a few countries south of Uganda. They had?enrolled "women reporting to a rural Malawian clinic from January to August 2015. Participants were offered the option to self-collect a vaginal sample and the study clinician collected a cervical sample for HPV testing."
Feasibility, validity and acceptability of self-collected samples for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in rural Malawi
They found that 199 women who were enrolled 22% had high-risk-HPV. ?Most importantly to the answer to my question, they found that "self-collection was acceptable, with 98% of women reporting it was easy to do and 99% reporting willingness to do so again."
That sounds like good response. If there are no cultural or customary differences in regards to women collecting samples, then this may be a feasible model to apply in Uganda and elsewhere.