The Hong Kong College of Obstetricians and  Gynaecologists (HKCOG) has recently updated its guidelines on the prevention and screening of cervical cancer.¹ The latest recommendations incorporated recent evidence on the role of co-testing with human papillomavirus (HPV)-based screening and cytology-based screening.¹ In an interview with Omnihealth Practice, Dr. Wong, Ching-Yin Grace shared the rationale behind co-testing as the preferred testing modality in  The Family Planning Association of Hong Kong as it offers concurrent triaging. The combination of sensitivity with HPV tests and the specificity with cytology tests allows for a more lenient screening schedule for women in Hong Kong without compromising the benefit of cervical cancer detection.

Cervical cancer (CC) is the 4th most common female cancer globally, claiming more than 300,000 women’s lives in 2018.¹ In Hong Kong, the incidence of CC remained high at around 7 per 100,000 women in 2019, which was still below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) target of fewer than 4 per 100,000