International agreement to join forces in synthesizing evidence on new methods for cervical cancer prevention

Recently published baseline results of randomised controlled trials, comparing cytology with HPV-based cervical cancer screening, consistently show increased detection of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in the HPV-arm. These results are in line with the pooled estimates of the relative sensitivity derived from cross-sectional studies. From two randomised trials, also the longitudinal outcomes observed at the second screening round were reported. HPV-negative women, had a relative risk of developing CIN3 in the next 3 to 5 years, compared to cytology-negative women, of 0.53 (95% CI: 0.29–0.92) and 0.45 (95% CI: 0.28–0.67), respectively in the Swedish and Dutch trial. Consensus was reached at the Cochrane Workshop on Cervical Cancer Prevention, organized at the occasion of the 24th Conference of the International Papillomavirus Society, to join forces to conduct future meta-analyses of the HPV screening trials and to synthesize evidence on new methods for cervical cancer prevention.