The Cervical Screening Cohort enrols women screened for human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical abnormalities within the capital region of Sweden, both from the organised screening program and the non-organised testing of cervical samples. The cohort started in 2011 and has enrolled more than 670,000 women at more than 1.2 million screening visits. Most women have contributed, on average, with two samples between 2011 and 2022. The enrolment process uses written invitations and informed consent, including an opt-out procedure. The cohort is systematically updated with individual-level data from the Swedish National Cervical Screening Registry (NKCx). Key variables include birthdate, sampling date, cytological and HPV analysis results, histopathological diagnoses (results of cervical biopsies or conisations), and screening invitations, including the invitation date. Each round of sampling and subsequent clinical follow-up is sequentially saved in the dataset, allowing for longitudinal analyses of screening results and associated results of the clinical workup. Systematic epigenomics and metagenomics analyses performed on the samples enrich the cohort data.

The cohort is ideal for longitudinal, long-term follow-up studies due to its validated documentation and registry-derived information. From the data, it is possible to penetrate important human health mechanisms. The data are available as open-access, GDPR-compliant. Samples are available after getting the required permissions. Results will help researchers understand factors that increase cancer risk and other diseases.