Publications by authors named "Athena Tsertanidou"

Objective: To identify the optimal strategy for the triage of women who test high-risk (hr) HPV positive on self-collected cervicovaginal samples.

Methods: This is a diagnostic accuracy sub-analysis of the GRECOSELF study, which reported on HPV-DNA testing with self-sampling in Greece. More than 13,000 women, 25-60 years old, who resided in rural areas of Greece, provided a self-collected cervicovaginal sample.

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Human papillomavirus (HPV)-DNA testing combined with self-sampling could increase cervical cancer screening effectiveness, utilizing a sensitive screening modality and an easy sampling method with minimal pain or discomfort. Self-sampling acceptability, though, is pivotal. This study is a nested cross-sectional survey within GRECOSELF, a cross-sectional study on HPV-based screening with self-sampling, aiming at investigating self-sampling acceptability among Greek women residing in rural areas, and the factors affecting it.

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Self-sampling for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is an alternative to physician sampling particularly for cervical cancer screening nonattenders. The GRECOSELF study is a nationwide observational cross-sectional study aiming to suggest a way to implement HPV-DNA testing in conjunction with self-sampling for cervical cancer screening in Greece, utilizing a midwifery network. Women residing in remote areas of Greece were approached by midwives, of a nationwide network, and were provided with a self-collection kit (dry swab) for cervicovaginal sampling and asked to answer a questionnaire about their cervical cancer screening history.

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Purpose: To assess personal and parental human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination acceptance and how it is influenced by demographic factors prior to (2005-2010) and during (2011-2016) the economic crisis in Greece.

Methods: During 2005-2016, 6,401 women aged 18-65 years, living in different areas of Greece filled in a questionnaire covering demographic characteristics, knowledge of HPV infection's natural history and its consequences and assessing their intention to receive the HPV vaccine for themselves and their children.

Results: Women's intention to get vaccinated before the economic crisis was higher (86.

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Persistent cervical infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPVs) is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the development of cervical cancer. Therefore, there are other co-factors facilitating the hrHPV carcinogenic process, one of which is smoking. To assess the effect of smoking on high-risk (hr) HPV DNA positivity and on the expression of HPV E7 oncoprotein, as a surrogate of persistent hrHPV infection, we used data from women recruited for the PIPAVIR project, which examined the role of E7 protein detection in cervical cancer screening.

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In the present pilot study, the feasibility of a site-of-care cervicovaginal self-sampling methodology for HPV-based screening was tested in 346 women residing in underserved rural areas of Northern Greece. These women provided self-collected cervicovaginal sample along with a study questionnaire. Following molecular testing, using the cobas HPV Test, Roche, HPV positive women, were referred to colposcopy and upon abnormal findings, to biopsy and treatment.

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The objective of the presented cross-sectional-evaluation-screening study is the clinical evaluation of high-risk(hr)HPVE7-protein detection as a triage method to colposcopy for hrHPV-positive women, using a newly developed sandwich-ELISA-assay. Between 2013-2015, 2424 women, 30-60 years old, were recruited at the Hippokratio Hospital, Thessaloniki/Greece and the Im Mare Klinikum, Kiel/Germany, and provided a cervical sample used for Liquid Based Cytology, HPV DNA genotyping, and E7 detection using five different E7-assays: "recomWell HPV16/18/45KJhigh", "recomWell HPV16/18/45KJlow", "recomWell HPV39/51/56/59", "recomWell HPV16/31/33/35/52/58" and "recomWell HPVHRscreen" (for 16,18,31,33,35,39,45,51,52,56,58,59 E7), corresponding to different combinations of hrHPVE7-proteins. Among 1473 women with eligible samples, those positive for cytology (ASCUS+ 7.

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Purpose: The purpose of the presented PIPAVIR (persistent infections with human papillomaviruses; http://www.pipavir.com ) subanalysis is to assess the performance of high-risk (hr) HPV-DNA genotyping as a method of primary cervical cancer screening and triage of HPV positive women to colposcopy compared to liquid-based cytology (LBC) in an urban female population.

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