2025 · Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · open access
Mailing Vaginal or Urine Self-Sampling Kits versus Conventional Invitation Letters: A Randomized Trial to Assess the Effect on Cervical Cancer Screening Attendance
Lefeuvre et al.
The finding, in our words
A randomised trial of 13,061 under-screened French women found that mailing vaginal or first-void urine self-sampling kits for HPV testing increased participation in cervical cancer screening to 23.5 to 23.6 per cent, compared with 12.9 per cent for conventional physician invitation letters. This demonstrates that decentralised, patient-centric screening can substantially improve population coverage.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This meta-analysis found that HPV testing using self-collected vaginal and urine samples showed sensitivities of 88.6% and 81% for detecting cervical precancer. Using a standardised device for first-void urine increased sensitivity to 86.6%, supporting decentralised patient-centric screening, though data on specificity and specific commercial devices were not consistently reported.
Hsiao et al., The journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research (paywalled) · source ↗
DNA methylation markers in first-void urine effectively detect high-grade cervical lesions in HPV-positive women, with results similar to clinician-collected samples in those over 30. This enables reliable cervical cancer screening using self-collected urine, reducing the need for invasive follow-up procedures in decentralised settings.
A study of 2500 women found 99.0% agreement between first-void urine and vaginal self-sampling for HPV detection using Cobas4800, with 98.1% of participants preferring urine. Although conducted in a resource-limited setting which may limit generalisability, these results support urine as a viable sample type for decentralised, patient-centric screening.
This study found that self-collected vaginal swabs and first-void urine yielded comparable detection rates for vaccine-targeted high-risk HPV types, supporting the use of both patient-centric methods for decentralised surveillance. Vaginal swabs showed higher sensitivity for non-vaccine types, whereas urine sampling offers a non-invasive alternative.
First-void urine and self-collected vaginal swabs showed similar sensitivity and specificity to clinician-collected cervical samples for high-risk HPV detection across two real-time PCR assays, supporting their use as decentralised, patient-collected alternatives; most women preferred first-void urine for regular cervical screening.
A et al., Journal of gynecologic oncology (paywalled) · source ↗