Our long-term goal is to develop sensitive, specific, and inexpensive approaches to cervical cancer screening. In our previous proposal, we performed the first U.S.-based study of the accuracy and cost effectiveness of primary screening by traditional Pap and cervical HPV DNA testing. We found that testing for HPV was considerably more sensitive but less specific than Pap testing for detection of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 (CIN3). While the role of high sensitivity in detecting disease cannot be disputed, when the trade-offs low specificity there are substantial cost implications, especially for a screening test that is repeated at regular intervals. Preliminary results from our group suggest that testing for the cyclin-dependant kinase inhibitor, p16INK4a, may provide a more accurate indication of disease status than either Pap or HPV DNA testing. Since p16INK4a is protein, there is potential for developing a low cost ELISA assay. Furthermore, our pilot data suggest that p16INK4a is associated with infection by variants of HPV16 that are most strongly linked with CIN3 and cancer. In HPV-associated tumors, levels of p16INK4a increase due to inactivation of Rb by HPV E7. Lastly, our preliminary data suggest that a self-collected vaginal swab for HPV DNA testing may be a viable screening option for women who avoid, or who do not have access to, pelvic examinations. In the proposed project, we plan to define the accuracy and relative cost-effectiveness of p16INK4a testing of a clinician collected sample and HPV DNA testing of a self-collected vaginal swab sample. In addition, we will explore the hypothesis that variation in levels of E7 gene expression defines differences in the oncogenic potential of HPV16 variants. While Pap test screening of healthy women has substantially reduced cervical cancer deaths over the last 50 years, false negative and false positive screening test results have also deprived women of their sense of well-being, initiated potentially harmful diagnostic testing and treatment, and wasted health-care resources. Clear public health benefits will accrue from development of more accurate and less costly screening tests.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA034493-22
Application #
7230518
Study Section
Epidemiology and Disease Control Subcommittee 2 (EDC)
Program Officer
Starks, Vaurice
Project Start
1997-08-15
Project End
2009-04-30
Budget Start
2007-05-01
Budget End
2009-04-30
Support Year
22
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$615,921
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Washington
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
605799469
City
Seattle
State
WA
Country
United States
Zip Code
98195
Xi, Long Fu; Jiang, Mingjun; Shen, Zhenping et al. (2011) Inverse association between methylation of human papillomavirus type 16 DNA and risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grades 2 or 3. PLoS One 6:e23897
Balasubramanian, Akhila; Kulasingam, Shalini L; Baer, Atar et al. (2010) Accuracy and cost-effectiveness of cervical cancer screening by high-risk human papillomavirus DNA testing of self-collected vaginal samples. J Low Genit Tract Dis 14:185-95
Balasubramanian, Akhila; Hughes, James; Mao, Constance et al. (2009) Evaluation of an ELISA for p16INK4a as a screening test for cervical cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 18:3008-17
Harris, Tiffany G; Miller, Leslie; Kulasingam, Shalini L et al. (2009) Depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate and combined oral contraceptive use and cervical neoplasia among women with oncogenic human papillomavirus infection. Am J Obstet Gynecol 200:489.e1-8
Feng, Qinghua; Cherne, Stephen; Winer, Rachel L et al. (2009) Development and evaluation of a liquid bead microarray assay for genotyping genital human papillomaviruses. J Clin Microbiol 47:547-53
Jiang, Mingjun; Baseman, Janet G; Koutsky, Laura A et al. (2009) Sequence variation of human papillomavirus type 16 and measurement of viral integration by quantitative PCR. J Clin Microbiol 47:521-6
Mao, Constance; Balasubramanian, Akhila; Yu, Mujun et al. (2007) Evaluation of a new p16(INK4A) ELISA test and a high-risk HPV DNA test for cervical cancer screening: results from proof-of-concept study. Int J Cancer 120:2435-8
Mao, Constance; Balasubramanian, Akhila; Koutsky, Laura A (2005) Should liquid-based cytology be repeated at the time of colposcopy? J Low Genit Tract Dis 9:82-8
Harris, Tiffany G; Kulasingam, Shalini L; Kiviat, Nancy B et al. (2004) Cigarette smoking, oncogenic human papillomavirus, Ki-67 antigen, and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Am J Epidemiol 159:834-42
Agoff, S Nicholas; Lin, Patricia; Morihara, Janice et al. (2003) p16(INK4a) expression correlates with degree of cervical neoplasia: a comparison with Ki-67 expression and detection of high-risk HPV types. Mod Pathol 16:665-73

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