As human papillomavirus (HPV) testing becomes increasingly integrated into cervical disease management strategies, it is necessary for the clinical community to consider optimal HPV tests. The test used for the majority of the influential randomised controlled trials and – more locally – the UK National Cervical Screening Programme (UKNCSP) Sentinel Site project was the Hybrid Capture 2 (HC2) test. The HC2 is a well-established, clinically validated test that detects 13 high-risk HPV types in aggregate at the DNA level. The significant amount of existing clinical data associated with HC2 has ensured its current ‘gold-standard’ status against which the performance of other emerging HPV tests is assessed.

However, it is also well established that the sensitivity of HPV DNA testing exceeds its specificity (particularly in young …