Cytological pattern of cervical Papanicolaou smear in eastern region of Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Cancer of the cervix has been considered as one of the preventable cancers. This study is the first published research addressing the screening of cancer of the cervix in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. AIM: This study aims to detect the prevalence of abnormal epithelial changes and its types in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. SETTINGS AND STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective study was designed to evaluate all previously conducted cervical smears examined at a secondary care maternity hospital in Saudi Arabia, during the period from 2003 to 2010. During this period, a total of 1171 smears were reported. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the records of all patients who had undergone Papanicolaou (Pap) smear during this period. After data collection, all cases were recorded as per Bethesda nomenclature. RESULTS: A total of 624 (53.3%) abnormal Pap smears were found, with only 58 cases reported to have epithelial pathological diagnosis (SIL). They represented 4.95% of total taken smears. A majority of the SIL diagnoses in our population were ASCUS, representing 60% of SIL cases. The prevalence of squamous cervical carcinoma was 0.34%. CONCLUSION: The study has shown a relatively high prevalence of epithelial abnormalities in cervical smears in the studied population. The squamous cell carcinoma represented a higher than the overall prevalence compared to World Health Organization (WHO) factsheets about Saudi Arabia. The mean age of epithelial abnormalities and squamous cell carcinoma was in the reproductive years.