A Descriptive Study of Different Methods of Cervical Cancer Screening among Ever-Married Women in 35-Year and 45-Year Cohorts in Kalutara District, Sri Lanka

OBJECTIVE: Screening for cervical cancer in Sri Lankan females with Pap smears (conventional cytology) has shown no marked reduction in cervical cancer incidence over the past two decades. The study aims to compare the efficacy of Pap smear, with other screening tools such as Liquid Based Cytology (LBC) and Human Papilloma Virus/deoxyribonucleic acid (HPV/DNA) (using cobas 4800) in detection of underlying cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical cancer among 35 and 45 year old ever married women in Kalutara districtin Sri Lanka. METHODS: Women from 35-year cohort and 45-year cohort were selected from all Public Health Midwife areas (n=413) in Kalutara district by random sampling. Pap smear, LBC, and HPV/DNA specimen were collected s from women who attended the Well Woman Clinics (WWC) . Women with positive results from any method were confirmed by colposcopy. RESULTS: Of the, 510 and 502 women in the 35-year cohort and 45-year cohort, respectively, included in the analysis, nine women among 35-year cohort (1.8%) and 7 women among 45-year cohort (1.4%) had cytological abnormality (positive results) with Pap smears. Thirteen women among 35-year cohort (2.5%) and 10 women among 45-year cohort (2%) age groups had cytological abnormality (positive results) with Liquid Based Cytology reports. Total of 32 women among 35-year cohort (6.2%) and 24 women among 45-year cohort (4.8%) were positive for HPV/DNA test. Of the women tested positive on screening, colposcopy revealed that HPV/DNA method was superior to Pap and LBC for detecting CIN while the results of latter two were comparable. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The CIN detection rate by colposcopy was high with HPV/DNA screening with cobas 4800, whereas the detection rate by LBC was insignificantly higher than Pap smears.