With half a million new cases every year, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer affecting women worldwide. The introduction of improved diagnostic tools and new biomarkers should facilitate cervical screening in the post human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination era.
Cervical cancer is usually preceded by a long phase of pre-invasive disease called cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Cervical cytology and HPV screening are standard practice in cervical screening for assessment of risk of developing CIN, while histology is the gold standard for disease diagnosis. With the introduction of HPV vaccination, the landscape of cervical pre-cancer will change over time. While the incidence of abnormal smears and high grade disease will decrease over time, the lower prevalence of disease will directly impact on the performance characteristics of current diagnostic tests. There is a need for alternative approaches and specific biomarkers to aid in screening for and objective CIN lesion grading.
Further details: Molecular biomarkers for cervical cancer