Poy, Marty
Development and distribution of an inter-laboratory comparison test for HPV testing
- 2026.
41
To ensure that cervical cancer screening is carried out optimally and consistently throughout France, the HPV tests used for screening must meet required performance standards and demonstrate excellent inter-laboratory reproducibility. To evaluate this reproducibility, we developed an Inter-Laboratory Comparison (ILC) test and sent it to 25 French laboratories that volunteered to participate in the study. This test comprised a panel of seven samples containing either HPV-, HPV16+, or HPV18+ cells, or plasmids of HPV33, HPV39, HPV52, and HPV56. Twenty-three of the laboratories performed HPV screening tests on this panel using different commercial kits. The HPV16 and 18 genotypes, present in some of the panel samples, were systematically detected by all of the participating laboratories. However, HPV33, 39, 52, and 56, present in plasmid form and in smaller quantities, were detected less consistently, depending on the laboratory and the kit used. These results indicate some variability between kits in the detection of non-HPV16/18 genotypes, although this does not necessarily impact the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening.