The WID®-can test is referred to in the scientific literature as the WID-qCIN test and is an epigenetic test for the detection and prediction of cervical cancer.

The test is based on a vaginal swab and examines DNA methylation in the DPP6, RALYL and GSX1 genes identified in a previous epigenome-wide screening with approximately 850,000 cytosine methylation marks in hundreds of individuals with or without high-grade CIN.

New data from the EUTOPS team, working with Prof. Joakim Dillner and his team from the Karolinska Institute, has been published in Nature Medicine.

The publication can be downloaded here DOWNLOAD

Cervical cancer usually develops in the uppermost layers of the cervical mucosa. Cancer usually develops in several stages and is closely linked to sexually transmitted infections with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Every year, 660,000 women worldwide are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer and 350,000 – mostly young women – die from the disease.

Screening for cervical cancer is based on the detection of the virus (HPV), followed by a cytological examination in which the shape of the cervical cells is assessed subjectively under the microscope. The results of cytology depend heavily on the observer. HPV tests and our new WID-qCIN test are objective assessments of the presence of DNA with certain characteristics.

The most important points of the study

The study investigated the efficacy of a DNA methylation test (WID-qCIN) in combination with standard HPV genotyping to identify women at increased risk of cervical cancer. Real data from a total of 28 017 women were analyzed over a period of 6 years.

The 2,377 samples that tested positive for the human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical cancer, were also tested using the WID-qCIN test.

By combining the WID-qCIN and HPV16/18 test results, 93% of all severe precancerous lesions (so-called CIN3) and 100% of all invasive carcinomas diagnosed within one year of sample collection were detected. A total of 210 women with normal cytology results in 2017 were diagnosed with cervical cancer or precancerous lesions between 1 and 6 years after providing their first sample. The WID-qCIN/HPV16/18 combination identified almost three times as many of these women overall as cytology (69% versus 18%), but would still have resulted in a much lower number of women requiring further invasive testing with colposcopy.