In the coming weeks, India is set to get the first at-home self-test kit for women that will allow them to screen for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancers.
The at-home vaginal swab test, being launched by LifeCell, a leading stem cell and tissues storage bank provider that is also into genetic screening tests and cell and tissue-based therapeutics, will cost Rs 2,500 per test.
According to Mayur Abhaya, managing director of the company, the test comes with a self-collection kit box that is safe, discreet, easy to use, and convenient, and the sample can be collected from the comfort of one’s home.
Importantly, it covers 24 high-risk HPV infections including HPV 16 & 18, which are responsible for more than 50 percent of cervical cancer cases.
“This test uses real-time (polymerase chain reaction) PCR technology to accurately detect the HPV genotypes that are responsible for cervical cancer,” Abhaya said.
As of now, to get a screening for cervical cancer, women are advised to take a pap test, usually offered by gynecologists.
The Department of Health Research under the Union health ministry recently released a Health Technology Assessment for early diagnosis of cervical cancer, which stressed that screening leads to a reduction in the occurrence of cervical cancer cases with a decrease in cancer deaths.
Convenient and easy to use
Abhaya said that once a customer collects the sample, they will need to pack it inside a discreet polybag and can book for a pick-up while the result can be checked online later.
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“After this, we will collect the kit and send it to the lab with utmost privacy and confidentiality,” he said.
To begin with, the test is being launched in all tier 1 cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru and the test facility will be expanded to other cities later.
Cervical cancer in India
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women in India — after breast cancer — despite being largely preventable by vaccine.
As per Globocan 2020, about 604,100 new cases of cervical cancer were detected globally in 2020 and 341,831 deaths were attributed to this malignancy while in India, cervical cancer accounted for 9.4 percent of all cancers and 18.3 percent (123,907) of new cases in 2020.
Experts say that it still is among the most common cancers in India and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women in low- and middle-income countries.
In the country, the incidence of cervical cancer significantly rises around the age of 45 years and peaks at 55 years.
A scientific analysis published by cancer researchers Ravi Mehrotra and Kavita Yadav in November 2021 on this specific malignancy underlined that though the age-standardised incidence rate of cervical cancer decreased substantially by 39.7 percent from 1990 to 2016, it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths for females in 12 states in the country.
This year, the government is also planning to include HPV vaccination in the Universal Immunisation Programme for girls aged 9-14 years. HPV vaccines by some foreign vaccine makers are only available in the private market in India as of now and have very limited coverage at the population level.
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