The HPV self-collection paradox: boosting cervical cancer screening, struggling with follow-up care

Primary high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is one of the first-line cervical cancer screening strategies in the USA.1 High-risk HPV testing has higher sensitivity for detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or worse (CIN2+) and is less subjective than the Papanicolaou test.2 Moreover, PCR-based high-risk HPV testing offers the option of unsupervised self-collection of samples, with similar clinical accuracy to clinician-collected samples.3 International studies show the efficacy of high-risk HPV self-collection in increasing cervical cancer screening;4 however, data are scarce among under-screened US populations.