"Cervical carcinoma is a preventable cancer caused by a persistent infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus (hrHPV). Several western countries have implemented nation-wide screening programs based on the detection of abnormal cells in cervical smears (cytology) for cervical cancer prevention. Although these programs have markedly reduced incidence in developed countries, even the most sophisticated cytology-based screening programs miss significant numbers of high-grade cervical lesions and fail to further reduce cervical cancer incidence. Besides loss to follow-up of women with abnormal cytology, the major causes underlying failure are:- Low sensitivity of the primary cytology based screening test, which is subjective, often not or poorly quality assessed (QA) and has low sensitivity for precancerous lesions- Incomplete coverage of women invited to participate in the screening programRemarkably, in developed countries with a successful nation-wide cervical screening programme 55% of all carcinomas are diagnosed in women who do not participate. Moreover, the lack of QA cytology in medium and low resource countries is one of the main reasons why incidence and mortality stay high in these countries.In recognition of these shortcomings the MASS-CARE project envisions a novel, objective, full molecular self-screening approach that enables molecular screening and triage for referral to the gynaecologist using self-collected cervico-vaginal samples as an alternative tool for cervical cancer screening. In particular, we aim to discover molecular triage markers specific for the stratification of women with hrHPV positive self-samples.The research team headed by professor Meijer has a strong track record of cutting edge translational research, has state-of-the art molecular tools in place and is equipped with unique biobanks of clinical cohorts of thousands of hrHPV positive women that are needed to successfully execute this ambitious project."