Reproducibility of HPV DNA Testing by Hybrid Capture 2 in a Screening Setting.
Within a large Italian randomized trial on new technologies for cervical cancer screening involving 7 laboratories with different levels of experience, an intralaboratory and interlaboratory quality control program for human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing by Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2; Digene, Gaithersburg, MD) was implemented. To monitor the hybridization and detection steps, target samples containing purified, concentration-defined, HPV DNA were introduced in each test run. Only 3 of 1,024 showed a mistake in a positive vs negative classification with a 1 relative light unit (RLU)/positive control specimen (PC) ratio cutoff. To monitor the preanalytic steps (particularly denaturation), blinded specimens (33 collected in PreservCyt (Cytyc, Boxborough, MA) and 36 in Specimen Transport Medium (STM, Digene) were centrally prepared, divided into aliquots, and sent to each laboratory. The multiple-rater scores for negative (<1 RLU/PC), low-positive (1 to <11 RLU/PC), and high-positive (> or =11 RLU/PC) samples, respectively, were 0.91, 0.60, and 0.69 with PreservCyt and 0.93, 0.87, and 0.90 with STM. Our data showed high reliability and reproducibility with HC2, with values higher for STM than ThinPrep (Cytyc) samples.
Carozzi
Francesca Maria
FM
Center for Study and Prevention of Cancer (CSPO), Florence, Italy.
Del Mistro
Annarosa
A
Confortini
Massimo
M
Sani
Cristina
C
Puliti
Donella
D
Trevisan
Rossana
R
De Marco
Laura
L
Tos
Anna Gillio
AG
Girlando
Salvatore
S
Palma
Paolo Dalla
PD
Pellegrini
Antonella
A
Schiboni
Maria Luisa
ML
Crucitti
Paola
P
Pierotti
Paola
P
Vignato
Alberta
A
Ronco
Guglielmo
G
D000328:Adult; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014626:Vaginal Smears
D004279:DNA, Viral