Assessment of the effectiveness of HPV16/18 infection referred for colposcopy in cervical cancer screening in Northwest of China

To evaluate the effectiveness of Human papillomavirus16/18 infection referral to colposcopy in cervical cancer screening for women aged 25 years and older in Chinese northwest region Shaan'xi province. A total of 2224 women were diagnosed with primary high‐risk HPV infection by HPV‐DNA genotyping technology during August 2014 to August 2015. A total of 1916 cases referred for colposcopy with histological evidence were enrolled, including 1124 women with HPV16/18 genotype and 792 with other High‐risk human papillomavirus genotypes. A total of 1916 women aged 25 years and older with HR‐HPV positive were referred to colposcopy. The distribution of HPV16, HPV18, and other HR‐HPVs infection were 49.22%, 9.45%, and 41.33%, respectively. 71.56% had normal cervical histology, 7.05% had Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia1, 8.82% had CIN2, 7.25% had CIN3, and 5.32% had cervical cancer. The percentage of positivity of HPV16 and HPV18 was highly associated with the relative risk of cervical lesion. The sensitivity and specificity of HPV16/18 for detection of CIN2+ (CIN3+) was 82.68% (92.12%) and 47.87% (46.15%), respectively. The positive predictive value and negative predictive value of HPV16/18 for detection of CIN2+ (CIN3+) was 30.16% (19.75%) and 91.03% (97.60%), respectively. HPV16 and HVP18 are the most common genotypes in high grade cervical lesions in Shaan'xi province. Meanwhile, these two types play predominant roles in the progression of high grade cervical lesion. Primary HPV16/18 detection has high sensitivity and negative predictive value in cervical cancer screening and the strategy for women with HPV16 and HPV18 infection referral to colposcopy is efficient and feasible in northwestern region of China.