Terminology of Cervical Smears

Carcinoma of the cervix is a slow growing cancer, which is preceded by precancerous lesions named cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN). The slow progression of precancerous lesions allows detecting the lesion at this stage. The cervical smear allows detecting cytological abnormalities at the microscope. The cells are taken by a spatula or a brush, smeared on glasses and stained by the method of Papanicolaou. The screening by the conventional cervical smear has reduced the incidence and the mortality of cervical cancer (1). The interval between two smears is variable depending if the screening is organized or opportunistic. In the later case, a percentage of women do not have cervical smears, in particular women who are in precarious situation, immigrant women or postmenopausal women without treatment (2). Women who develop cervical cancer have not had a cervical screening or got it in a too spaced way in 60% of cases. In 10% of cases, they had a smear but not an appropriate follow-up. At least, in 30% of cases, they had a regular cervical smear. In this case, cancer is due to a false negative linked to the sampling or to the interpretation.