NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Hologic today announced the Netherlands Society for Pathology has approved the use of the Hologic Cervista HPV HR test in the Dutch national cervical screening program.
The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands suggests routine pap testing and HPV HR triage for the ASCUS/LSIL (or atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance/ low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion) testing for women over the age of 30 in order to identify those most likely to develop cervical cancer, Hologic said.
The Cervista HPV HR test includes an internal control for verifying adequate cellularity for testing, reducing the number of false negative results, Rohan Hastie, Hologic vice president and general manager of diagnostics, said in a statement.
"More importantly, the test is designed to minimize false positive results due to a low-risk HPV strain being mistakenly recognized as a high-risk HPV strain, thereby potentially reducing unnecessary clinical management and patient anxiety. The test is built on redundancy and focused on the L1/E6E7 region so it protects against false negative outcomes in the event of L1 deletion," Hastie said.
The Bedford, Mass.-based firm is in the process of acquiring Gen-Probe for $3.7 billion and yesterday announced that the deal has been approved by German regulators.