The Pap smear challenge: Comparing the clinical performance of a novel “Molecular Pap” based on next-generation sequencing to traditional cervical cancer screening

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) infections and associated diseases have been a chronic and growing health problem for the worlds population. HPV is now recognized as the carcinogen of almost all invasive cervical cancers and a major cause of other human malignancies including oropharyngeal and anogenital cancers totaling ~ 600,000 cases worldwide annually. Economically, HPV imparts a tremendous financial burden on the world health systems in terms of expenditure for HPV prevention, periodic surveillance and cancer treatments. The Pap smear, regarded as the most successful cancer screening test in the history of medicine, has been in existence for over 70 years. However, due to the lack of Pap smear screening programs in resource-limited regions of the world, developing nations carry the highest cervical cancer burden and mortality rates worldwide.