These pilots were designed to evaluate a number of issues associated with introducing HPV testing into the cervical screening programme as triage for samples showing borderline nuclear change and mild dyskaryosis. The issues examined included:
- The extent to which HPV testing in women with low grade cytological changes reduced the need for colposcopy
- The positive predictive value of the HPV test in women with low grade abnormalities and the negative predictive value for women with persistent mild dyskaryosis.
- The public acceptability of HPV testing as part of the screening programme. This needed to be seen as a component of an improved cervical screening test and not a "sexually transmitted disease test". The anxiety of patients returned to normal recall after a negative HPV test despite an earlier abnormal result was monitored as well as the anxiety caused to patients whose HPV test was positive and followed by immediate referral for colposcopy.
- An assessment of the prevalence of HPV infection in the UK population with low-grade abnormalities and the impact of the introduction of testing on a laboratory.
More information about HPV and cervical screening