New Technologies in Cervical Cancer Screening

The positive predictive value of current cervical cancer screening strategies will be diminished in populations receiving prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. The impetus for developing new screening technologies will be predominately driven by the need to increase positive predictive value and reduce over-management of low-grade and often transient abnormalities (i.e., increase specificity). A shift to a molecular approach is the most likely solution. Adjunctive technologies to improve performance of effective screening programs including limited and broad-spectrum HPV genotyping, detection of HPV mRNA and HPV integration, and host p16(INK4a) expression will be discussed.