Cervical Cancer: The outcomes of liquid-based cytology vs conventional cytology among HPV/DNA screening test positives of ever married 35 and 45 years old women in Kalutara district and unit cost estimation of colposcopy and biopsy
Authors:   Acting Consultant Community Physician, Epidemiology Unit, Colombo, Sri Lanka., KCM Perera , R Punchihewa ,   Consultant Histopathologist, National Hospital for Respiratory Diseases, Welisara, Sri Lanka, R Silva ,   Consultant Obstetrician & Gynecologist, Teaching Hospital Ragama, Sri Lanka., Silva Dileep De ,   Consultant Community Dentistry, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka, MRM Cooray ,   Medical Officer, Kethumathie Maternity Hospital, Panadura, Sri Lanka.
Published: May 2022

Background: One major drawback of the present National Cervical Cancer Screening programme is, the suboptimal sensitivity (53%) of the pap smear to detect Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN). HPV/DNA test is highly sensitive (92.9%) for CIN II viral load and the feasibility of HPV/DNA screening with conventional cytology for screen positive follow-up was successfully attempted. The sensitivity of Liquid Based Cytology (LBC) to detect CIN II+ is 79.1%. Objective: To describe the results of LBC vs conventional cytology among HPV/DNA screen positives of 35 and 45 year old ever-married women in MOH areas of Kalutara district. Methods: There are 15 Medical Officer of Health areas in Kalutara district and the Public Health Midwife area (n=413) is taken as a cluster. Three clusters were randomly selected in each MOH area (n=45) by the lot method. Eligible family registers were the sampling frame. Nine subjects in the 35 and 45 age cohort each from all 45 clusters were selected by consecutive sampling technique. The total number of 393 and 390 subjects from 35 and 45 age cohorts were subjected to cervical specimen collection at community Well Woman Clinics (WWC) after applying exclusion criteria at field and clinic setting. HPV/DNA screen positives were subjected to both LBC and pap smear. HPV/DNA screen positive with either conventional cytology or LBC≥ Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (ASCUS) were referred for colposcopy. The incremental cost of the pap smear was calculated. The Scenario-Building technique was used to calculate the per- procedure cost of colposcopy and biopsy. Results: The response rate of 35 and 45 age cohorts women was 97.5% and 96.5% respectively. The number of 25 (6.36%) among 35 and 18 (4.61%) among 45-year- old women were positive for HPV/DNA test. The number of 7 (1.78 %) among 35 year and 5 (1.28%) among 45 year old women had ≥ASCUS in conventional cytology, while the number of 10 (2.54%) among 35 years and 8 (2.05%) among 45 years old women had ≥ASCUS in LBC. Prevalence of CIN by colposcopy among 35 years and 45 years women for LBC vs conventional cytology were 1.53%, 1.28% and 1.53%, 1.03% respectively and there was no significant difference. No invalid results were reported for LBC and the treatment adherence for colposcopy was 86.7%. The incremental cost of pap smear was Rs. 626.18, while the per-procedure cost of colposcopy and biopsy was Rs.1528.15 and Rs.681.16. Conclusions and recommendations: To improve the quality and coverage of the programme HPV/DNA PCR test as a primary cervical cancer screening method with LBC for only screen positive follow-up can be recommended.