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Jennifer Smith, PhD, a UNC Lineberger member and an associate professor of epidemiology at the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been awarded a RO1 grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the project “Effect of HPV Self-Collection on Cervical Cancer Screening in High-Risk Women.”

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UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers will collaborate on a study examining the effect of using HPV sample self-collection on cervical cancer screening completion in high-risk women.

Jennifer Smith, PhD, a UNC Lineberger member and an associate professor of epidemiology at the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, has been awarded a RO1 grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for the project “Effect of HPV Self-Collection on Cervical Cancer Screening in High-Risk Women.”

The grant will support a five-year, randomized control trial in North Carolina to assess whether testing women for human papillomavirus (HPV) using mailed, self-collected samples will improve cervical cancer screening completion among high-risk women.

And through a collaboration with co-investigators Noel Brewer, PhD, a UNC Lineberger member and an associate professor of health behavior at the Gillings School, Michael Hudgens, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics at the Gillings School, and Stephanie Wheeler, PhD, a UNC Lineberger member an assistant professor of health policy and management at Gillings, the study will also examine possible psychological mechanisms explaining the intervention’s effect, and assess relative costs of HPV self-collection compared to clinic referral.

Though modern approaches to screening and early treatment have dramatically lowered rates of invasive cervical cancer, more than one-fifth of women in the United States do not complete recommended screening. More than half of invasive cervical cancer cases occur in these under-screened women. Self-collection for HPV testing has been found to be a valid and well-accepted method for detecting HPV infection, with comparable sensitivity to physician collection for detecting high-grade precancerous lesions.

“Women who are under-screened generally fall outside the regular health care system,” Smith said. “Many of these women face structural barriers such as lack of transportation, or personal barriers such as embarrassment. This project takes a novel approach to improving access to screening by providing these women with a self-sampling kit that they can complete at home.”

Increasing early detection of high-grade precancerous cervical lesions would have a major public health impact by reducing suffering and death from cervical cancer nationwide.