Increasing Cervical Cancer Screening Among Female Patients at Penn State Health St. Joe's Residency Clinic: Letter Notifying Them About Outdated Screen and Postcard With Self-sampling Option

The American Cancer Society estimates that 4,170 women in the United States will die from cervical cancer in 2018. It is possible to prevent many of these deaths through screening and appropriate follow-up in women with positive screens (1). Self-sampling for HPV testing may be a viable option for cervical cancer screening, particularly among women who do not obtain regular screening in a clinical setting.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of offering self-sampling for high risk HPV testing to in order to increase the number of women who are screened for cervical cancer at the Penn State Health (PSH) St. Joseph's family and community medicine residency clinic. This study will use an intervention arm and a control arm. Women in the control arm will receive a standard letter stating that they need to be screened and should contact their primary care provider. Women in the intervention arm will receive a modified version of the letter informing them of a self-sampling option with a pre-addressed post card that allows them to request a self-sampling kit. Once the postcard is returned these women will receive a self-sampling kit in the mail to collect their sample. The kit will come with a pre-paid mailer so that the participant can return their kit for processing at the Penn State Hershey Clinical laboratory.

Women who are out of date with their cervical cancer screening will be identified using the Electronic Medical Record by the use of a set of queries that have been developed to extract this patient population. Eligible women will be randomized to the study group in a 2 to 1 ratio (2 for the control arm and 1 to the intervention arm). The primary endpoint that will be evaluated in this study is the method of completion of cervical cancer screening and the use of the self-sampling kit, which will be monitored over a three month period after the letters have been mailed. A secondary endpoint will be the overall rate of cervical cancer screening of all people mailed a letter. Participants will be recruited continuously until the anticipated sample size has been met. A total of 1,211 participants are expected to participate in this study, 807 in the control arm and 404 in the intervention arm. The study team will calculate the proportion of participants who obtain cervical cancer screening from the clinic or the self-sampling kit and use chi-square tests for statistical analysis.

If a self-collected cervical sample produces a negative result, the participant will be contacted by a study physician with these results. If the sample produces a positive result for low-risk HPV the participant will be contacted by a study physician to schedule a pap test. If the sample produces a positive result for high-risk HPV the participant will be contacted by a study physician for a colposcopy. The pap test and colposcopy are both standard of care for these results. The study team will monitor the completion of the screenings and subsequent procedures.