Nov2005: Abstracts: George L. Wied Memorial Symposium

The conventional Pap test is highly effective for screening of cervical cancer and its precursors but has a false negative rate due to either sampling, preparation or screening. New technologies, such as liquid-based Paps, automated screening devices and high-risk (HR) HPV testing by molecular methods, have been introduced to increase the detection of cervical disease. Two liquid-based technologies (LBTs) have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration: ThinPrep and SurePath. Other LBTs processed by manual methods, such as PapSpin, Cyto-Screen & DNA Citoliq, have been introduced in Europe and South America. The main advantages of LBTs are well-fixed preparations free of blood or inflammatory exudate, smaller area to screen, more sensitive than conventional cytology and residual material available for ancillary testing for HR HPV DNA, Chlamydia/Neisseria gonorrhoeae and biomarkers. The potential clinical utility of HR HPV DNA testing includes the triage of women with ASC-US results, in the posttreatment of women with CIN 2–3 and as an adjunct to the Pap test in primary cancer screening in women 30 years of age or older. These new technologies have been gradually introduced at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and were well received by the clinical staff. It has been shown in the literature that the use of new technologies detects more cervical disease, although degrees of variability exist concerning associated specificity. At the conference, the 2001 Bethesda System for the reporting of cervical cytology, including criteria for the interpretation of cervical lesions in liquid-based and conventional preparations, will be presented. The impact of HR HPV testing in the management of patients with cytologic abnormalities will be discussed.