The FINANCIAL -- Roche announced today that it has been awarded an exclusive contract by
Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, to provide a
diagnostic tool for primary screening of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in
Swedish women.
This is the first major public tender in Europe to screen women using Roche’s HPV test for high risk virus types which potentially can cause cervical cancer.
The screening program is expected to serve as a pilot for implementation of HPV primary screening nationwide in Sweden and will start in November 2011.
In 2008, European Union guidelines for cervical screening introduced the alternative possibility to use HPV testing as the primary diagnostic test, provided that implementation was piloted in an organised fashion with stringent evaluation. The Swedish program is one of the first to follow these guidelines.
“Roche is committed to providing healthcare solutions that can positively impact the lives of many women. We have shown in clinical trials that one out of ten women with normal Pap who have HPV genotype 16 and/or 18 already had pre-cancerous lesions. These women may have been sent home without follow up if tested with traditional Pap alone,” said Daniel O’Day, Chief Operating Officer of Roche Diagnostics. “With the introduction of our new HPV test as the primary screening test, we hope to reduce the number of women who are missed in the early stages and thereby enable earlier intervention before they develop cervical cancer.”
Screening has traditionally been performed using either Pap cytology or Pap cytology plus HPV testing to determine the risk of cervical cancer. However, HPV testing, and 16 and 18 genotyping in particular, identifies more women at risk earlier than Pap cytology testing alone. HPV genotypes 16 and 18 are the two highest-risk HPV genotypes responsible for more than 70 percent of cervical cancer cases.
The Karolinska University Hospital is one of the largest and most prestigious hospitals in Sweden and performs all testing for the organised cervical screening program in Stockholm.
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