Optimization of Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women Living With HIV in Latin American Countries

The Cepheid Xpert HPV Assay (Xpert HPV) is a qualitative, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the detection of hrHPV DNA. The assay is formatted in a single-use, Xpert HPV test cartridge and is run on the Cepheid Xpert® System, a multi-analyte, random access, molecular-diagnostic platform ranging in capacity from 1 to 80 test processing modules. Importantly, a single hrHPV DNA test can be completed in one hour, permitting same-day screening and diagnosis (e.g. colposcopy) or treatment (e.g. cryotherapy), reducing the potential for loss to follow-up in lower-resource settings. It uses liquid-based cytologic media and yields five separate results or channels: HPV 16, HPV 18/45, HPV 31/33/35/52/58, HPV 51/59, HPV 39/68/56/66 all with a corresponding cycle threshold.

The Qiagen QIAsure assay is a multiplex real-time PCR test that amplifies the methylated promoter regions of the tumor suppressor genes, FAM19A4 and has-mir124-2, as well as a methylation-unspecific fragment of the ACTB reference gene. Hypermethylation of the host genes FAM19A4 and has-mir124-2 has been shown to detect high-grade cervical lesions and cancer.