A new meta-analysis pooling 11 studies found that HPV testing on samples women collect themselves detected high-grade precancerous cervical changes with high sensitivity, adding to the evidence behind a screening option now covered without cost sharing by most private insurance plans.
The analysis, published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Research by a Taiwanese research team, drew on 3,534 self-collected urine samples and 3,523 self-collected vaginal samples. Pooled sensitivity for detecting high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions or worse was 88.6% for vaginal swabs and 81% for urine samples.
