FEMALE PREVENTIVE HEALTHCARE MEASURES

• Blood tests: Ca 125, Ca 19.9, ßHCG
• Conventional or ThinPrep PAP smear test. Examination done upon appointment only. 
• Papillomavirus (HPV): Screening
• Papillomavirus (HPV): genotyping (29 strains).

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infects squamous multilayered epithelia, inducing the synthesis and the production of viral particles inside permissive cells, whose activity is related to the differentiation degree of the host cell.

Around one hundred types of HPV have been identified, more 35 out of these infect the anogenital tract (genital warts), and about 20 are associated with genital cancer. The presence of these sequences is demonstrated in more than 90% of invasive cervical carcinoma cases in squamous cells, in warts and often even in cases of cervical intraepithelial carcinoma.

Based on the pathology (benign or malignant) to which they are most frequently associated, strains of HPV can be divided into:

• low oncogenic risk: HPV 6, 11, 40, 42, 43, 44, 54, 61, 70, 72, 81
• high oncogenic risk: HPV 16, 18, 26, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 53, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, 73, 82.

The most appropriate method for the early detection of cervical cancer is the Pap smear test, which must, however, be combined with the molecular tests which have the purpose of increasing the sensitivity and specificity of the cyto-histological diagnosis, also allowing the typing of papillomavirus. Molecular analysis is the extraction of DNA from a swab/ cytobrush and from the ensuing gene amplification by PCR. In case it is positive, one then proceeds with the genotyping via a specific hybridization to identify which of the above described strains is responsible for the infection.