Indigenously developed HPV test kits for cervical cancer screening launched in Delhi
The test kits have been developed under the Department of Biotechnology's (DBT) partnership programme Grand Challenges India (GCI) at the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).
The DBT supported research coordinated by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi, with testing done at laboratories at AIIMS, National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida; and the National Institute for Research in Reproductive and Child Health (NIRRCH), Mumbai, in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
"The key feature of these kits is the inclusion of only the seven-eight most common cancer-causing types that will allow a very efficient and cost-effective screening programme which will be most suitable for India," Dr Neerja Bhatla, former head of the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at AIIMS, Delhi and chief coordinator of the programme said.
The study titled 'Validation of Indigenous Human Papillomavirus Tests for Cervical Cancer Screening in India (i-HPV)' validated indigenously developed, rapid, point-of-care, RTPCR-based HPV diagnostic test kits for screening cervical cancer in premier research and development laboratories of India.
"Given the enhancement of RTPCR-based diagnostic facilities across the nation in the post-COVID era, the introduction of sensitive RTPCR-based HPV testing kits might prove to be cost effective screening method over classical HPV DNA and Pap smear for deployment in the national cancer screening programme," Dr Bhatla said.
Cancer of the uterine cervix is the second most common cancer among Indian women. According to WHO data, one out of every five women in the world suffering from the disease is an Indian, Dr Bhatla stated.
Besides the high incidence of cervical cancer owing to its late diagnosis and with consequent poor survival, 25% of global mortality due to cervical cancer occurs in India, she said.
Thus, there has been a pressing need for the development of control strategies for the prevention and screening of cervical cancer. The currently available methods of screening of cervical cancer include Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA), Papanicolaou test (Pap test or Pap smear) and HPV DNA testing, she stated.
Regular population screening by Pap smears has been successfully implemented in the developed world. Nevertheless, it is costly, resource-intensive and only moderately sensitive. VIA screening requires considerable training and re-training for quality assurance and has high false positivity rates with programmatic challenges, she said.
HPV testing has the best diagnostic accuracy if it conforms to international standards of validation. As part of the Global Declaration for Cervical Cancer Elimination, WHO recommends a transition to HPV testing in all countries, whereby only two tests in a lifetime, at age 35 and again by age 45 years, will be sufficient. The target is to set up processes to screen 70% of eligible women by 2030, Dr. Bhatla stated.
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