Patent ID: 8513398

Claim:
A composition comprising a combination of nucleic acid probes consisting essentially of: at least one first nucleic acid probe comprising a fragment of 10-500 consecutive bp from human papilloma virus 16 (SEQ ID NO: 1), which probe is capable of hybridizing to SEQ ID NO: 1 under low stringency conditions, at least one second nucleic acid probe comprising a fragment of 10-500 consecutive bp from human papilloma virus 18 (SEQ ID NO: 2), which probe is capable of hybridizing to SEQ ID NO: 2 under low stringency conditions, and at least one third nucleic acid probe comprising a fragment of 10-500 consecutive bp from human papilloma virus 51 (SEQ ID NO: 4), which probe is capable of hybridizing to SEQ ID NO: 4 under low stringency conditions; wherein the combination of nucleic acid probes is capable of hybridizing to at least 14 high risk HPV types, and wherein at least one nucleic acid probe chosen from the first, second or third nucleic acid probes is capable of hybridizing to a human papilloma virus (HPV) nucleic acid contained in a sample thereby forming at least one nucleic acid-HPV hybridization complex, and wherein hybridization of the at least one nucleic acid probe to the sample indicates the presence of cancer or the risk of developing cancer.