Clinical validation of the Roche cobas HPV test on the Roche cobas 6800 system for the purpose of cervical screening and qualification as a second-generation comparator test.

This study assessed the relative clinical sensitivity and specificity for cervical precancer of the Roche cobas HPV test when processed using the Roche cobas 6800 system using the Roche cobas 4800 HPV test as comparator. Intra- and inter-laboratory reproducibility were evaluated as well. The cobas HPV test run on the cobas 6800 platform demonstrated a relative clinical sensitivity of 1.00 for histologically confirmed CIN2 + lesions in woman aged 30 years or older, with a relative clinical specificity of 1.001 (p for non-inferior accuracy < 0.0001). The intra- and inter-laboratory reproducibility were 99.6 % and 99.8 % respectively. The study is the third to show that cobas HPV testing on the 6800 platform consistently demonstrates a relative clinical sensitivity of ≥ 0.95 and a relative clinical specificity of ≥ 0.98 for CIN2 + . This would qualify it, according to a recently published criteria, as a second-generation comparator assay.