Application of Human Papillomavirus in Screening for Cervical Cancer and Precancerous Lesions

Abstract

Cervical cancer is a commonly-encountered malignant tumor in women. Cervical screening is particularlyimportant due to early symptoms being deficient in specificity. The main purpose of the study is to assess theapplication value of cervical thinprep cytologic test (TCT) and human papillomavirus (HPV) detection in screeningfor cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. In the study, cervical TCT and HPV detection were simultaneouslyperformed on 12,500 patients selected in a gynecological clinic. Three hundred patients with positive resultsdemonstrated by cervical TCT and/or HPV detection underwent cervical tissue biopsy under colposcopy, andpathological results were considered as the gold standard. The results revealed that 200 out of 12,500 patientswere abnormal by TCT, in which 30 cases pertained to equivocal atypical squamous cells (ASCUS), 80 casesto low squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), 70 cases to high squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and 20cases to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). With increasing pathological grade of cervical biopsy, however, TCTpositive rates did not rise. Two hundred and eighty out of 12,500 patients were detected as positive for HPVinfection, in which 50 cases were chronic cervicitis and squamous metaplasia, 70 cases cervical intraepithelialneoplasia (CIN) Ⅰ, 60 cases CIN Ⅱ, 70 cases CIN Ⅲ and 30 cases invasive cervical carcinoma. Two hundred andthirty patients with high-risk HPV infection were detected. With increase in pathological grade, the positive rateof high-risk HPV also rose. The detection rates of HPV detection to CIN Ⅲ and invasive cervical carcinoma aswell as the total detection rate of lesions were significantly higher than that of TCT. Hence, HPV detection is abetter method for screening of cervical cancer at present.