Celebrate Cervical Health Awareness with QIAGEN

It’s a historical time for cervical cancer prevention.

Cervical cancer is virtually 100% preventable with vaccination and appropriate screening. As scientists uncover more insights on cervical cancer and with the development of new tests and guidelines, we are entering into an age with the real possibility of eliminating one of the highest burden cancer affecting women globally.

QIAGEN has been committed to this cause for over two decades. The digene HC2 High-Risk HPV Test is the gold standard for HPV testing worldwide and QIAGEN continues to bring new innovations to the market with the QIAsure Methylation Test and the QIAscreen HPV PCR Test.

Let’s brush up on the latest cervical cancer facts and figures. And more importantly, let’s share this information with those close to us who may be at risk.

The development of cervical cancer screening

The Papanicolaou (Pap) Test

  • Introduced by George Papanicolaou in 1949
  • A significant step that had a tremendous impact in developed countries
  • Limitations for large-scale implementation in LMIC

HPV as cause of cervical cancer

  • Discovered by Professor Harald zur Hausen in the early 1980’s
  • HPV-16 and HPV-18 DNA was found in cervical tumor samples
  • Discovery recognized for a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2008

The digene HC2 HPV Test

  • First HPV DNA test approved by the FDA in 1999
  • Provided clinicians a new tool for cervical cancer screening
  • Approved for ASCUS reflex testing and cotest with Pap in 2003

The QIAsure and QIAscreen Tests

  • New HPV tests obtained CE approval from 2016-2018
  • QIAsure test stratifies risk for HPV-positive patients
  • QIAscreen test provides menu and flexibility for HPV testing

Despite being 100% preventable, cervical cancer is on the rise for many parts of the world

  • Cervical cancer is the 2nd most frequent cancer worldwide
  • Over 80% of deaths occur in low and middle income countries without adequate screening options. (1)
  • In the United States, more than 12,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, and more than 4,000 women will die from cervical cancer. (2)
  • The WHO predicts that there will be 207,010 new cases by 2040, a 36% increase from 2018.

There is a pressing need to deliver effective screening tests to these countries to successfully prevent cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer screening guidelines are changing

Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented with vaccination and early detection. As HPV testing becomes widely accepted, cervical cancer screening guidelines are changing to reflect the shift in clinical practice. QIAGEN is proud that the digene HC2 test generated much of the data to support the guidelines over the last 20 years.

Central America

From 2014–2018, through the Scale-Up project, PATH and local partners provided technical assistance to governments in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to introduce HPV testing and improve access to screening. PATH encouraged ministry of health leadership to implement self-sampling as a primary screening strategy to enhance access and acceptability among women while overcoming infrastructure barriers. To date, almost a quarter of a million women have been screened using QIAGEN’s careHPV® Test across the four countries.

Asia
  • India, Barshi Project: This project is a multicentre follow up study established in 2016 where researchers are following up on a HPV-vaccinated population. Around 2000 women have been reflex tested using the digene HPV Genotyping PS test.
  • India, Adyar Cancer Institute: In 2014, this was the first site in India to implement a community-based screening project to screen rural women in Villupuram (Tamil Nadu) using the careHPV test. This project expands screening to two more districts in the state. They have screened around 25,000 women and aim to have careHPV as the primary method for screening.
  • Myanmar, Central Women Hospital: This project aims to have routine screening using the careHPV test. To date, they have screened more than 1000 women.
  • Sri Lanka, Rottary Club: This project is a collaboration with a local hospital to implement routine screening using the careHPV test. To date, they have screened 2000-3000 women.
Africa
  • South Africa, University of Cape Town: This project uses the digene HC2 Test to analyze self-collected and physician-collected samples of 1200 women.
  • South Africa, University of Pretoria: This project uses the digene HC2 Test to analyze nurse-collected samples of 2000 women.

At QIAGEN, we are dedicated to cervical cancer screening solutions. Our growing HPV portfolio includes tests for low resource settings, risk stratification, and diverse menu options.

We are celebrating 20 years of improvements in cervical cancer screening and HPV testing

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    digene HC2 is the Gold Standard

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The careHPV Test, QIAsure Methylation Test, and QIAscreen HPV PCR Tests are not available in the United States.

References

1. Schiffman, M. et al. (2007) Human papillomavirus and cervical cancer. The Lancet 370, 890–907.

2. U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. U.S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations Tool, based on November 2017 submission data (1999-2015): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Cancer Institute; www.cdc.gov/cancer/dataviz, June 2018.

3. World Health Organization Global Cancer Observatory – Cancer Tomorrow. GLOBOCAN 2018.  http://gco.iarc.fr/tomorrow/graphic-isotype

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