TOPLINE:

In a real-life analysis of all women residing in Stockholm County, Sweden, the implementation of human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling among long-term cervical cancer screening non-attenders achieved higher participation.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers analysed data from 40,381 women (mean age, 50 years) in the Stockholm or Gotland region who had not participated in cervical cancer screening for more than 10 years despite multiple invitations.
• Participants received sexually transmitted infection sample collection kits from Roche diagnostics, with samples analysed using the Cobas 4800 HPV testing platform for HPV16, HPV18, and 12 other HPV types.
• The analysis included participation rates, the prevalence of HPV, and the calculation of positive predictive values (PPVs) for high-grade squamous intraepithelial neoplasia (HSIL) or worse and invasive cervical cancer through December 31, 2022.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall participation reached 35.6%, with 11.6% of participating women testing positive for HPV.
• Among HPV-positive women, 43 were identified with invasive cervical cancer and 319 were identified with HSIL or worse.
• The PPV to detect HSIL and invasive cervical cancer among HPV-positive women was 44.5% and 5.8%, respectively.

IN PRACTICE:

"The present evaluation of introducing routine HPV self-sampling for long-term non-attending women demonstrated that the strategy results in higher participation than found in previous studies in the research setting and has underpinned the continued use of this strategy," the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by K. Miriam Elfström, Center for Cervical Cancer Elimination, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. It was published online on December 29, 2025, in the International Journal of Cancer.

LIMITATIONS:

The intervention was offered to all eligible women for ethical reasons; therefore, the results were compared to those from previous randomised trials or overall statistics for Sweden.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions and the Stockholm County Council. The authors declared having no relevant conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.