The effectiveness of the application of modern diagnostic criteria of cervical pathology

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is one of the four most common cancers today and is the second most common cancer among women in developing countries. According to World Health Organization estimates, in 2018, the number of new cases in these countries was 570,000 (84% of all new cases globally). About 311,000 women died of cervical cancer in 2018, with more than 85% of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. The detection of the disease in its later stages has not significantly reduced since 2018 (32.6% of all cases).

AIM: The aim of this study was to compare the information contents of conventional and liquid cytology methods in women with verified human papillomavirus of high oncogenic risk.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 50 outpatient records of women aged 23 to 65 years who underwent colposcopy (cervical biopsy) based on the results of cervical screening. To establish the diagnosis, all patients underwent examination of smears from the cervix and cervical canal using conventional (n = 25) and liquid (n = 25) cytology methods. A molecular genetic study was carried out to detect high-oncogenic human papillomavirus types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 45, 51, 56, 58) in scraping of the cervix by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Women in the both study groups also underwent colposcopy with histological examination of the cervical biopsy specimen. The analysis of the obtained data was carried out using methods of parametric and nonparametric statistics. Inclusion criteria included cytological examination, verified human papillomavirus of high oncogenic risk, and colposcopy. Exclusion criteria included pregnancy and acute infectious diseases.

RESULTS: According to the results of histological examination, the percentage of coincidence of cytological and histological diagnosis in the group of women who underwent conventional cytological examination was 48%. The total number of discrepancies in this group was 13 (52.0 ± 9.99%). The number of women infected with human papillomavirus in the both study groups was almost the same (18 in the conventional cytology group and 19 in the liquid cytology group). The most common types of human papillomavirus among the examined patients were the 16^th type (9 women) and the 18^th type (6 women).

CONCLUSIONS: To date, cytological research methods have not lost their relevance, the liquid cytology method being a reliable screening test with high specificity, which reduces the number of unsatisfactory preparations for analysis and false negative results. The most informative for women with type 2 or type 3 of transformation zone is the use of the liquid cytology method.