Follow-up by combined cytology and human papillomavirus testing for patients post-cone biopsy: Results of a long-term follow-up

Objective. The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical implications of integrating human papillomavirus (HPV) testing into a long-term follow-up and management protocol for women postconization for high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2-3). Methods. Sixty-seven women were followed-up by Pap smears and HPV type and load testing (mean follow-up, 63 months; range, 50-72). Patients with persistent abnormal cytology on two consecutive smears and those with positive HPV test results (whatever their cytologic findings) were referred for colposcopy-directed biopsy. Patients histologically diagnosed with CIN2-3 and those with high-load HPV (whatever their histologic findings) underwent repeat conization or hysterectomy for residual disease. Results. At follow-up, 29 (43.2%) women had positive cytology or positive HPV results and were referred for colposcopy. Eleven (37.9%) had high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or high-load HPV results and were further treated by reconization/hysterectomy. The respective positive predictive values of high-load HPV and low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions were 100 and 60% for any CIN and 90 and 15% for CIN2-3. Only five of nine cases with a final diagnosis of CIN2-3 were originally identified by cytology: the other four were detected only by parallel evaluation by HPV testing. High-load HPV results with normal cytology or low-grade lesions harbored an 80% risk for CIN2-3. Conclusion. Adding HPV load assessment to the follow-up protocol of women postconization due to CIN2-3 lesions could help detect high-grade residual disease among low-grade lesions and normal cytology cases while concomitantly and safely bestowing the advantage of lowering the rates of colposcopic referrals and surgical procedures.