Is Do-It-Yourself Home Cervicovaginal Sampling an Effective Screening Strategy?

Cervical cancer screening is hampered by lack of women's adherence to recommended testing schedules. Investigators in the Netherlands randomized women (age range, 30–60) who had not been screened within 5 years (the recommended interval in that country) in a 99:1 ratio to be invited to submit home-collected vaginal swab specimens (to be tested for 13 high-risk subtypes of human papillomavirus [HPV]) or to receive second recall letters for conventional cytology screening. The study was partially funded by the manufacturer of self-sampling kits.

Of 26,924 women in the self-sampling group, 27.5% mailed in specimens. Of 277 women in the recall group, 16.6% participated in cytology screening (between-group difference in adherence, 10.9%; P<0.001)…