Clinicopathological importance of Papanicolaou smears for the diagnosis of premalignant and malignant lesions of the cervix

BACKGROUND: Premalignant and malignant lesions are not uncommon in Pakistani women, especially in the older age-groups AIM: This study was conducted to determine the clinicopathological importance of conventional Papanicolaou (Pap) smears for the diagnosis of premalignant and malignant lesions of the cervix. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pap smears of 1000 women were examined from January 2007 to June 2009. Only cases with neoplastic cytology were included. RESULTS: The overall frequency of normal, inadequate, neoplastic, and infective smears was 50%, 1.8%, 10.2%, and 38.3%, respectively. Most of the patients (67%) were in the postmenopausal age-group, with the mean age being 44.7±15.63 years. The commonest clinical signs/symptoms seen among the 102 patients with neoplastic gynecological lesions were vaginal discharge and abnormal bleeding (93/102;(91.2% and 62/102;60.7%). Of the 102 cases with neoplastic lesions 46 patients (45%) had low-grade squamous cell intraepithelial lesions (LSILs), 22 (21.5%) had high-grade squamous cell intraepithelial lesions (HSILs), 14 (13.7%) had squamous cell carcinoma, and 6 (5.8%) showed features of adenocarcinoma. Ten (9.8%) cases showed cytology of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) and four (3.9%) cases had atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance (AGUS). CONCLUSION: We conclude that cervical smear examination is well suited for diagnosing neoplastic disease. It is clear that cervical neoplastic lesions are becoming a problem in Pakistan.