This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing theresources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject andinvestigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source,and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed isfor the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator.Although no epidemiological studies of anogenital human papilloma virus (HPV) infection have been conducted in Puerto Rico, genital HPV infection is the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infection in young sexually active populations in developed countries. Given that infection with certain types of HPV has been associated with cancer of the anus and cervix, information on the distribution of HPV types at anogenital sites is essential for the design and implementation of HPV vaccines and vaccine studies. Although HPV testing has been suggested as screening of cervical cancer, and potentially for anal cancer, clinician-collected genital examinations are still unacceptable to many women and represent methodological and economic challenges in research protocols that require repeated clinician-directed pelvic examinations. With an interest to overcome these limitations associated with clinician-directed cancer screening, HPV-DNA self-sampling techniques have been proposed as a valid alternative. Given that the appropriateness of HPV self-sampling techniques has not been studied among Puerto Rican women, this pilot study aims to determine the agreement between self-collected and physician-collected HPV DNA anal and cervicovaginal specimens in a clinic-based sample of 100 women aged 18-34 years old residing in Puerto Rico and who attend the OBGYN clinics of the Medical Sciences Campus, University of Puerto Rico. A face-to-face interview will collect information on risk factors for HPV infection including demographic characteristics, lifestyles, and HPV self-sampling acceptability. Clinician and self-collected anal and cervicovaginal specimens will be collected using Digene swabs, which will be placed in separate 5-mL vials containing 1 ml Digene specimen sample transport medium (Digene Corp.) after collection. HPV DNA testing will be performed at the Palefsky Laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco, using L1 consensus primer PCR with MY09/MY11 primers. PCR products from positive samples will be typed by dot-blot hybridization using 39 individual type-specific probes. The overall agreement between the results for the two sampling methods will be defined as the percentage of pairwise samples for which results of tests for detection of any HPV DNA are identical.
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