The United Kingdom National Health Service Cancer Screening Programmes (NHSCSP) has approved the use of automated technology that reduces the amount of cervical cancer screening samples needed to be examined by humans by 25%. The BD FocalPoint from Source BioScience can automatically analyze samples, giving a “no further review necessary” signal in cases that are all clear, with the remainder then being examined by a human being. 3.6 Million of these tests are being undertaken across England and Wales during one year, so use of this technology could lead to a significant reduction in laboratory workload and costs.
The decision to approve the system was taken following recommendations from the Health Technology Assessment “MAVARIC” trial, published in March 2011, demonstrating the clinical performance of the system compared with manual screening and its compatibility HPV testing. Although the trial showed that neither of two automated systems (BD FocalPoint and Hologic Thinprep) were sensitive enough to be used as fully automated screening tools, the “no further review necessary” label did not miss any lesions beyond grade 1 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (which does not need treatment), with 99.4% of these samples completely negative by both manual and automatic screening.
Press release: Source BioScience receives NHS approval for automated cervical cancer screening technology…
Product page: Source Bioscience BD FocalPoint…
MAVARIC trial results: Automation assisted versus manual reading of cervical cytology (MAVARIC): a randomised controlled trial…
