Genotyping and Cytology Triage of High-Risk HPV DNA Positive Women for Detection of Cervical High-Grade Lesions

Objective A demonstration project of primary human papillomavirus (HPV) testing was initiated in 2011 among more than 23,000 women attending routine cervical cancer screening. We examined the additional diagnostic performance of HPV genotyping for detecting disease in women with abnormal cytology. Methods Women aged 30 to 65 years were originally screened for HPV using Hybrid Capture II test. Women with positive results were triaged using conventional cytology, and those with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance or worse (≥ASC-US) were referred to colposcopy. We retrospectively genotyped (Roche cobas 4800 HPV system [Roche Molecular Systems Inc, Pleasanton, CA]) cervical specimens that were HPV + with Hybrid Capture II test and extracted women's medical history postbaseline screening. We calculated positive predictive values (PPVs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of triage tests to detect histologically confirmed cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of grade 2 or worse (CIN2 + ) within the first year of follow-up among women positive for HPV16, HPV18, and HPV16 and/or HPV18 as well as among those negative for HPVs 16 and 18. Results Of 1,396 HPV-positive women, 1,092 (78%) were classified as normal, 136 (10%) had CIN1, 80 (6%) had CIN2, 81 (6%) had CIN3, and 7 women had cancer throughout the entire follow-up period. Seventy CIN2 + cases were detected within the first year of follow-up. The PPV for detecting CIN2 + was 20.9% (63/239; 95% CI = 16.4–25.9) for ASC-US + cytology. In women with ASC-US + , PPVs were 31.2% (24/77; 95% CI = 21.1–42.7) for HPV16 + , 27.8% (5/18; 95% CI = 9.7–53.5) for HPV18 + , 30.8% (28/91; 95% CI = 21.5–41.3) for HPV16 + and/or HPV18 + women, and 16.6% (35/211; 95% CI = 11.8–22.3) in women testing negative for HPVs 16 and 18. Conclusion Partial genotyping as an additional triage strategy to cytology can markedly improve clinical diagnostic performance.