'Post-pandemic, self-sampling for cervical cancer preferred'

According to a Tata Memorial study submitted at the World Cancer Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, 500 women in urban slums, another 500 in urban non-slum areas, and 600 women from rural settings were asked to self-test for cervical cancer after being educated about how to use the self-test kit. "

- Malathy lyer

The acceptance rate of self-sampling was 99.2%,97%, and 98.8% and HPV positivity was 7%, 7.8%, and 7.8% among the urban slum, urban non-slum, and rural women respectively," the study said. The difference in results between the samples collected by health personnel and self-sampling, using a gentle brush, was negligible.

"If a woman has an HPV infection, the virus can also be found lower in the reproductive tract in the vagina, so there is no need to collect from the cervix," said Dr. Gauravi Mishra from preventive oncology department of Tata Memorial Hospital, who is associated with the self-sampling study in Mumbai.