Last Updated: 2003-08-25 14:41:12 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by infection with specific types of human papilloma virus (HPV). While screening by regular Pap smears is the most reliable way to catch cervical cancer, this isn't available in all parts of the world.

Now it seems that testing urine can show quite accurately which types of HPV are present in the cervix, and therefore which women run the risk of developing cancer, according to a report in the Journal of Medical Virology.

Dr. Grazyna A. Stanczuk, from the University of Zimbabwe Medical School in Harare, and others compared the detection of HPV in urine and in cervical specimens from 43 women with cervical cancer.

HPV was detected and typed in 72 percent of urine samples and 98 percent of cervical swabs, the team reports.

The most common type, present in 59 percent of swabs, was HPV 16, followed by types 33, 18, and 31. The HPV type detected in the urine was the same as the cervical type in 22 of 28 paired samples that were available for comparison, the researchers found.

The accuracy of the urine tests could probably be improved with repeated testing, they note. This "should identify the high-risk group of women with prolonged HPV cervical infection," they add.

The results raise "the real possibility that self-testing for HPV urogenital infection, using urine, will one day give low-income countries an opportunity to implement cost-effective, practical, and 'women-friendly' cervical cancer screening programs," Stanczuk's team predicts.