Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Benefit of Cervical Cancer Screening with Liquid Based Cytology Compared with Conventional Cytology in Germany

Advances in diagnostic liquid-based cytology

Liquid-based cytology (LBC) has changed the landscape of gynaecological cytology. A growing demand exists for LBC in diagnostic cytology, particularly for ancillary testing, such as immunocytochemistry and molecular testing. Ancillary testing solely based on conventional preparation (CP) methods remains challenging. Recently, the increased demand for specialist testing and minimally invasive techniques, such as endoscopic ultrasonography fine-needle aspiration, to obtain cellular samples has led to an increasing demand for ancillary testing on cytology LBC supernatant, slides and cell block (CB). This facilitates the diagnosis and prognosis in cytology samples enabling personalized treatment. An understanding of the history and future prospects of LBC is crucial for its application in routine diagnostics by cytopathologists and cytotechnologists. In this review, we initiated an internet search using the keyword 'liquid-based cytology', and we conducted a literature review to discuss the usefulness of combined diagnosis of LBC and CP, immunocytochemistry and molecular testing and assessed the quality of nucleic acids in diagnostic LBC. High-quality and cell-rich diagnostic LBC surpassed the CP method alone in terms of reliability and versatility of ancillary testing in cytological diagnosis. Conclusively, diagnostic LBC lends itself to various new technologies and is expected to continue evolving with innovations in the future.

Quality and Performance of Papanicolaou Test using the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) EP12-A2 Guidelines: A Single-Center Study in Peru

Context

Quality assurance in cervical cytology is based on the cyto-histological correlation that is performed in several countries even without standardized protocols.

Aims

To evaluate the quality of the Pap smear with the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) EP12-A2 guideline in a Peruvian hospital.

Settings and Design

This prospective study was carried out at tertiary care national hospital.

Methods and Material

The 156 cyto-histological results were collected and coded according to the Bethesda 2014 and FIGO system. The evaluation with the CLSI EP12-A2 guide allowed estimating the performance and quality of the test.

Statistical Analysis Used

We performed a descriptive analysis of the cytological and histological data and correlation with the weight Kappa test. From the calculation of the likelihood ratios, the post-test probability was estimated using Bayes' theorem.

Results

In cytology, 57 (36.5%) were undetermined abnormalities, 34 (21.8%) low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (SIL), and 42 (26.9%) high-grade SIL. Of the total biopsies, 56 (36.9%) were cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 1, 23 (14.7%) were both CIN grade 2 and 3. We determined sensitivity, specificity, a positive and negative predictive value of 94%, 74.6%, 58%, and 97.1%, respectively. We determined a moderate cyto-histological agreement (κ = 0.57). Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (40%), and cannot exclude high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (42.1%) that showed higher overdiagnosis results.

Conclusions

The quality and performance of the Papanicolaou test show high sensitivity and moderate specificity. The concordance found was moderate and the proportion of underdiagnosis was higher in abnormalities of undetermined significance.

Investigation of the Clinical Application Value of HR-HPV DNA Combined with Liquid Based Cytology in Colposcopy of Cervical Cancer

In order to investigate the clinical application value of HR-HPV DNA combined with liquid-based cytology in colposcopy of cervical cancer, a retrospective analysis is performed on 428 patients who underwent a cervical pathological examination in our hospital from May 2020 to December 2021. The pathological biopsy results are used as the gold standard to determine whether cervical lesions occurred in patients, and patients with positive gold standard results are included in the study group. The positive rates of liquid-based cytology and HR-HPV DNA are observed and recorded, and the patients with negative gold standard results are used as the control group. The positive rate of HR-HPV DNA and liquid-based cytology will increase with the aggravation of pathological results. The ROC curve shows that HR-HPV DNA combined with liquid-based cytology has high diagnostic efficiency in colposcopy of cervical lesions. It is clearly evident that both liquid-based cytology and HR-HPV DNA tests have certain advantages in the screening of cervical lesions, and the combined detection can further improve the screening value of cervical lesions.

Cervical Cancer Prophylaxis—State-of-the-Art and Perspectives

Background: Each year 604,127 new cases of cervical cancer (CC) are diagnosed, and 341,831 individuals die from the disease. It is the fourth most common cancer among women and the fourth most common cause of death from female cancers worldwide. The pathogenesis of CC is associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) infections and consists of several steps involving cell proliferation outside the human body’s control mechanisms. Strategies to prevent CC are based on screening and vaccination. Scope of the Review: The aim of this paper was to collect and analyze the available literature on the issue of CC prevention and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its implementation. For this purpose, PubMed and Google Scholar databases were searched using keywords, such as “cervical cancer”; “HPV”; “prevention”; “prophylaxis”; “vaccination”; “screening” and “COVID-19” in different variations. Only articles published since 2018 were included in the study. Conclusions: Selected European countries have different CC prevention programs funded by national budgets. This translates into observed differences in the risk of death from CC (age-standardized rate Malta = 1.1, Poland = 5.9). COVID-19 pandemic due to disruption of CC screening may exacerbate these differences in the future. To improve the situation, new screening methods, such as p16/Ki67, HPV self-testing, and the use of artificial intelligence in colposcopic assessment, should be disseminated, as well as free HPV vaccination programs implemented in all countries. The search for new solutions is not without significance and entails ultra-sensitive screening tests for risk groups (mRNA E6/E7, SOX1/SOX14), HPV vaccines with shorter dosing schedules, and new therapeutic pathways using nanotheranostics.