Optimization of Cervical Cancer Screening Strategies Among Women Living With HIV: Effectiveness and Implementation of Decentralized Approach Using a Mobile Team With HPV Testing in the Western Region of Cameroon

NCT ID: NCT07181278

Last Updated: 2025-12-02

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

RECRUITING

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

1180 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2025-04-28

Study Completion Date

2028-08-01

Brief Summary

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Context. Cervical cancer (CC) is a leading cause of death among women living with HIV (WLHIV) in resource-limited settings. Yet, effective methods for screening and preventing CC are available. The recommanded approach for CC screening is based on multiple steps, including initial test to detect human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, visual inspection to identify women with HPV at risk for precancerous lesion and treatment when required.

Dropout may occur at these different steps, compromising the success of the CC elimination strategy. Performing all the screening and treatment sequences in a single visit has been recommanded based on the results of a large South African trial. Yet, in many contexts, including those with limited resources, the screening and treatment activities are performed in multiple visites for logistical reasons, resulting in many dropouts.

Different strategies for delivering screening with HPV testing for WLHIV are possible. A first approach ("centralized approach") consists of having well equipped reference centres with experienced health workers and referring women to these centers. An alternative consists of having a mobile unit who can bring equipment and health workers and perform the CC screening in the usual places of patient care ("decentralised" or mobile team approach). Each of these two approaches has advantages and limitations in terms of coverage, completeness, cost and quality of screening. It is necessary to evaluate them in real life to inform national decision-makers on the best strategy to use in their countries.

The OptiTri-MU study aims to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of these two strategies for delivering CC screening ("centralized" screening versus "decentralized" screening). It will also assess the implementation of each strategy and include three sub-studies designed to evaluate :

* the performance of urinary HPV testing.
* the performance of different methods to identify women requiring a treatment.
* the risk of post-treatment cervical disease. Design This is a trial in which the intervention (mobile team) will be implemented gradually. All sites starts with the centralized screening strategy. At each period, a new site is ransomly selected and start the the decentralized screening strategy. There will be 6 periods of 10 weeks. The effectiveness of the intervention will be assessed by comparing the outcomes at each site before and after implementation and by comparing the sites with each other. The primary outcome for effectiveness is the screening completeness 120 days after enrollment.

The study will also assess the implementation of each screening strategy in terms of :

* Success through the measure of fidelity, reach and completeness
* Identification of adaptation, barriers and facilitating/leverage factors
* Perception, feasibility and acceptability of the screening strategies (by patients and health care workers)

Other study objectives include :

* To assess the performance of different methods to identify women requiring a treatment
* To assess the performance of HPV testing on a urine sample compared with vaginal self-collected or cervical (clinician-collected) samples
* To assess the efficacy of treatment in terms of post-treatment cervical lesions Study population. Participants will be WLHIV aged 25 to 49 and eligible for CC screening. Health care workers will also be invited to participate to the implementation research. The data collected will be quantitative and qualitative.

Detailed Description

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Context. Cervical cancer (CC) is a leading cause of death among women living with HIV (WLHIV) in resource-limited settings. Yet, effective methods for screening and preventing CC are available. The recommanded approach for CC screening is based on multiple steps, including initial test to detect human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, visual inspection to identify women with HPV at risk for precancerous lesion and treatment when required.

Dropout may occur at these different steps, compromising the success of the CC elimination strategy. Performing all the screening and treatment sequences in a single visit has been recommanded based on the results of a large South African trial. Yet, in many contexts, including those with limited resources, the screening and treatment activities are performed in multiple visites for logistical reasons, resulting in many dropouts.

Different strategies for delivering screening with HPV testing for WLHIV are possible. A first approach ("centralized approach") consists of having well equipped reference centres with experienced health workers and referring women to these centers. An alternative consists of having a mobile unit who can bring equipment and health workers and perform the CC screening in the usual places of patient care ("decentralised" or mobile team approach). Each of these two approaches has advantages and limitations in terms of coverage, completeness, cost and quality of screening. It is necessary to evaluate them in real life to inform national decision-makers on the best strategy to use in their countries.

The OptiTri-MU study aims to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of these two strategies for delivering CC screening ("centralized" screening versus "decentralized" screening). It will also assess the implementation of each strategy and include three sub-studies designed to evaluate :

* the performance of urinary HPV testing.
* the performance of different methods to identify women requiring a treatment.
* the risk of post-treatment cervical disease. Design It is a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial with primary HIV care unit as clusters and 6 periods of 10 weeks. All sites starts with the centralized screening strategy. At each period, a new site is randomized to the decentralized screening strategy. The primary outcome for effectiveness is the screening completeness 120 days after enrollment.

The study will also assess the implementation of each screening strategy in terms of :

* Success through the measure of fidelity, reach and completeness
* Identification of adaptation, barriers and facilitating/leverage factors
* Perception, feasibility and acceptability of the screening strategies (by patients and health care workers)

Other study objectives include :

* To assess the performance of different methods to identify women requiring a treatment
* To assess the performance of HPV testing on a urine sample compared with vaginal self-collected or cervical (clinician-collected) samples
* To assess the efficacy of treatment in terms of post-treatment cervical lesions Study population. Participants will be WLHIV aged 25 to 49 and eligible for CC screening. Health care workers will also be invited to participate to the implementation research. The data collected will be quantitative and qualitative.

Conditions

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Cervical Cancer Screening HIV

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

CROSSOVER

Stepped-wedge cluster randomized clinical trial
Primary Study Purpose

SCREENING

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Centralized screening

A self collected vaginal sample is collected onsite. All the other screening are performed in a reference centre.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Centralized screening

Intervention Type OTHER

Self-collected samples are sent to a reference laboratory for HPV testing. Results are communicated to the participants and HPV positive women are invited to go to the reference centre where triage and treatment (when required) are performed.

Decentralized arm (mobile team)

A mobile team consisting of midwives and lab technician with a Genexpert platform visits the health centres and perform CC screening with HPV testing and treament when required.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Mobile unit with quasi point of care HPV testing and immediate triage + treatment

Intervention Type OTHER

A mobile team consisting of one or two midwives and a lab technician with a Genexpert platform visits the health centres on a regular basis.

After informed consent is granted, participants perform a vaginal self-sample, which is immediately analyzed with the Genexpert plateform. Participants who test HPV positive are invited for immediate triage and treatment if required.

Interventions

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Mobile unit with quasi point of care HPV testing and immediate triage + treatment

A mobile team consisting of one or two midwives and a lab technician with a Genexpert platform visits the health centres on a regular basis.

After informed consent is granted, participants perform a vaginal self-sample, which is immediately analyzed with the Genexpert plateform. Participants who test HPV positive are invited for immediate triage and treatment if required.

Intervention Type OTHER

Centralized screening

Self-collected samples are sent to a reference laboratory for HPV testing. Results are communicated to the participants and HPV positive women are invited to go to the reference centre where triage and treatment (when required) are performed.

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Women
* HIV infection
* Age between 25 and 49 years old
* Receiving or starting ARV treatment
* Agreeing to participate in the study and having signed the consent

Exclusion Criteria

* Current pregnancy
* Hysterectomy
* Treatment of cervical lesions within 12 months
* Expected follow-up difficulties: planned absence that could interfere with the participation in the study (e.g., travel abroad, relocation, imminent transfer, etc.);
* Any pathology or concomitant treatment which, in the opinion of the investigators, contraindicates participation or prevents satisfactory participation in the study

Deferred inclusion if

* menstrual bleeding
* Postpartum (\<12 weeks after delivery)
* Clinical signs of cervical or pelvic infection
Minimum Eligible Age

25 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

49 Years

Eligible Sex

FEMALE

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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International Agency for Research on Cancer

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

OTHER_GOV

Sponsor Role collaborator

Centre Pasteur du Cameroun

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Queen Mary University of London

OTHER

Sponsor Role collaborator

Programme PACCI, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

RSD Institute, Cameroon

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Centre Hospitalier Simone Veil

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement

OTHER_GOV

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Pierre Debeaudrap, MD, PhD

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)

Joëlle Sobngwi, MD, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

RSD Institute

Locations

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Bafoussam Baptist Hospital

Bafoussam, , Cameroon

Site Status RECRUITING

Bingo Hospital

Bafoussam, , Cameroon

Site Status RECRUITING

Centre Médical Spécialisé ACHA

Bafoussam, , Cameroon

Site Status RECRUITING

Hôpital Régional Annexe

Bafoussam, , Cameroon

Site Status RECRUITING

Bandjoun District Hospital

Bandjoun, , Cameroon

Site Status RECRUITING

Foumbot District Hospital

Foumbot, , Cameroon

Site Status RECRUITING

Countries

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Cameroon

Central Contacts

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Andre-Pascal Goura, MD

Role: CONTACT

+227679336464

Facility Contacts

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Director

Role: primary

Director

Role: primary

Director

Role: primary

Director

Role: primary

Director

Role: primary

Director

Role: primary

Other Identifiers

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IRD_2024_CEPED_OptiTri_mobileT

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

22SANIC204

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

ANRS 0467

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

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