Courtesy Wikimedia Commons/John Hayman/Creative Commons License
Less-frequent cytologic testing, followed by hrHPV tests
George F. Sawaya, MD, from the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues enrolled 451 English-speaking or Spanish-speaking women aged 21-65 years from women’s health clinics between September 2014 and June 2016. The women were mean 38 years old, and 57% were nonwhite women. The researchers examined utilities for 23 different health states associated with cervical cancer, and created a Markov decision model of type-specific high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV)–induced cervical carcinogenesis.
The researchers evaluated 12 screening strategies, which included the following scenarios:
- For women aged 21-65 years, cytologic testing every 3 years; if atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) are found, repeat cytologic testing in 1 year or switch to immediate hrHPV triage.
- For women 21-29 years, cytologic testing every 3 years, and then followed with cytologic testing plus hrHPV testing (cotesting) for women 30-65 years old; if a normal cytologic test result and positive hrHPV test results, move to cotesting in 1 year or immediate genotyping triage.
- For women 21-29 years, cytologic testing every 3 years, and then followed with hrHPV testing alone every 3-5 years for women 30-65 years; if there are positive hrHPV results, move to immediate cytologic testing triage or immediate genotyping triage. Women with positive hrHPV and negative genotyping results receive additional cytologic testing triage.
In the strategies that switched the women from cytologic testing to hrHPV tests, the study also tested doing the switch at age 25 years rather than 30 years, the investigators reported.
Overall, with regard to cost, screening resulted in more cost savings ($1,267-$2,577) than not screening ($2,891 per woman). Women received the most benefit as measured by lifetime quality-adjusted life-years (QALY) if they received cytologic test every 3 years and received repeat testing for ASCUS. The strategy with the lowest cost was cytologic testing every 3 years and hrHPV triage for ASCUS ($1,267), and the strategy of 3-year cytology testing with repeat testing for ASCUS had more QALY but at a higher cost ($2,166). Other higher-cost strategies relative to QALYs included cotesting and primary hrHPV and also annual cytologic testing ($2,577).
“Both the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Cancer Society consider cotesting the preferred cervical cancer screening strategy, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force considers it an alternative strategy,” Dr. Sawaya and colleagues noted. “Our findings challenge these endorsements.”
“Our analyses suggest that it is not cost effective to begin primary hrHPV testing prior to age 30 years, to perform hrHPV testing every 3 years, or to perform cytologic testing annually. Comparative modeling is needed to confirm these findings,” they concluded.