Financing: Roche Diagnostica Brasil Ltda.

Researchers : Dr. Julio Teixeira and Dr. Luiz Carlos Zeferino

Line of research: Sexual and Reproductive Health

Indaiatuba will be a reference in Latin America with HPV test collection data system

The partnership signed between the City Hall of Indaiatuba, the University of Campinas (Unicamp) and Roche Diagnóstica for the Indaiatuba Cervical Cancer Screening Program with HPV test will complete 1 year in October and to celebrate the success of the results a team from Roche came to the city on Thursday (30) for a meeting at the Health Department, aiming at monitoring the actions and programming the next steps. During the meeting, it was informed that Indaiatuba will be a reference in Latin America with the software system made available and implemented by Roche in all Health Units in Indaiatuba, which maps care through personalized algorithms. This system will be taken to other Latin American countries and Indaiatuba will be the experience of a successful case.

The study to detect the DNA of the HPV virus (human papillomavirus) will be applied for the next four years in Indaiatuba, and is coordinated by gynecologists and researchers from Unicamp, Dr. Luiz Carlos Zeferino and Dr. Julius Caesar Teixeira. They prepared the project a few years ago and found a supporter in Roche Diagnostics who allowed the implementation of the action. The company provided automated equipment, supplies and resources to improve the tracking system and enable the assessment of the economic feasibility of implementing this type of screening in the Unified Health System.

The RTD LATAM Project Manager, Liliana Perez, was present at the meeting representing Roche; the Scientific Affairs manager, Marisa Dinnocenzo and the product manager, Mariana Vitule. Representing the City Hall of Indaiatuba was the deputy mayor and gynecologist, Dr. Tulio José Tomass do Couto; the Secretary of Health, Graziela Drigo Bossolan Garcia; the director of Primary Care, Dr. Thais Helena Wilmers Perini; the gynecologist, Dr. Jose Pedroso Neto; the department director, Luciana Mori and the nurse, Carla Sofia.

The Cervical Cancer Screening Program Indaiatubano with HPV test serves women assisted by the SUS, within the age range indicated for the procedure, between 25 and 64 years. The collection of material for the examination is performed by the gynecologist or nurse in the office (same collection procedure for the Pap smear). If the result is negative, the woman will only need to undergo a new exam after five years, unlike conventional cytology, which, after negative results in two consecutive years, must be performed again after three years.

According to the Scientific Affairs manager, Marisa Dinnocenzo, the expectation was to serve 6,000 women in 1 year and this number is already on the verge of being fulfilled and the forecast is to exceed this goal and reach 8,500 in December. The data collection shows that 85 to 87% of the tests are negative for HPV; 10 to 12% are high-risk cases and 5 to 6% are positive and referred for colposcopy (a medical diagnostic technique to evaluate the cervix, vagina and vulva tissues using an instrument that enlarges and illuminates these structures), if there are apparent lesions in this exam, the patient undergoes a biopsy. In five years of the project, the forecast is to reach 100% of the target audience, which corresponds to 31 thousand women.

According to the Secretary of Health, the next step is to track the female audience that has not yet taken the exam and carry out an active search. “We are able to identify women who have not yet taken this exam and this is our next step. I say that it is extremely important that all women within the indicated age group look for a Health Unit to take the exam, because only he can identify HPV even before any lesion appears, that is prevention. We are the city unit in the world that performs this exam with a software that integrates all health units and specialized units. We are very proud to participate in this project and we want to reach the entire target audience”, says Graziela.

According to information provided by Unicamp researchers Dr. Luiz Carlos Zeferino and Dr. Júlio César Teixeira, in recent decades the country has invested in the Pap smear as the main method of preventing cervical cancer, however, there has been no reduction in mortality due to the lack of control over the screened population. Statistics show that in Brazil, one woman per hour dies, aged approximately 45 years, as a result of the disease and 80% of them would not die if the screening program with the Pap smear (Pap smear) worked in an organized and adequate manner. On the other hand, the HPV DNA test is very sensitive and performed entirely in an automated way, for this reason the chances of failure are very small.

• Original publication: 09/03/2018 08:57h
• Copywriter(s): Lais Fernandes
• Release No.: 704 – INDAIATUBA