New Strategies to Improve the Detection of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Persisting Infections

Dear Colleagues,

The introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) primary testing in cervical cancer screening programs has certainly improved clinical sensitivity as compared to cytology (Pap test) but does not allow for discriminating between women with transient infections and those truly at risk of developing cancer. For this reason, HPV-positive women are presently triaged by performing a Pap test from the same starting cervical sample, and only those with confirmed abnormal cervical cytology undergo colposcopy. HPV infections are particularly common in young sexually active women, so it is very important to avoid the unnecessary overtreatment of clinically irrelevant infections. The introduction of more standardized and reproducible molecular biomarkers, such as full-genotyping, genotype-specific HR-HPV viral loads, oncogenic transcript (E6/E7 mRNA) quantification, the definition of viral or human methylation status, and research on specific viral mutation and viral variants, could improve the risk stratification in cervical cancer screening programs helping to discriminate between transient and persisting infections.

This Special Issue aims to collect research contributions or review articles that involve the description of, development of, or new molecular potential biomarkers in this field.

Dr. Marianna Martinelli
Guest Editor

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• human papillomavirus
• HPV
• viral load
• genotyping
• oncogenic transcripts
• biomarkers