Personalized approach to management of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion

•Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is treatment option for cervical squamous intraepithelial lesions and cervical cancer.•Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are one of the most important factors of innate immune response.•HPV infection plays great role in development of cervical cancer.•This case demonstrated effectiveness of PDT-induced TLRs gene expression. Cervical cancer ranks 4th place among malignant neoplasms in the world in 2020. HPV is the main reason for cervical cancer. The «Gold standard» of cervical screening is an «HPV-testing + PAP-test» co-test. The immune system can clear HPV infection. Pathway of cervical cancer development is investigated, but immunity recognition of HPV is still incompletely studied. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are membrane receptors on the cell membranes and membrane organelles. TLRs ligands could be bacterial, viral pathogens or toxins. When a ligand binds to TLRs, cytokines production is triggered. Chronic inflammation process down-regulates TLRs expression. This helps develop HPV infection. The current paper demonstrates how photodynamic therapy induces TLRs gene expression. A personal approach to estimating photodynamic therapy by an innate immune response in a clinical case is described. A 43-year-old woman with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and 33rd type of HPV infection turned into a private clinic. The patient had complex check-ups before we defined a treatment strategy. Photodynamic therapy was performed as a non-invasive fertility-preserving treatment. We tested TLRs 2/3/4/8 gene expression before and after photodynamic therapy in 2 h, one week and 6-month periods. PDT induces TLRs gene expression in a 6-month period. HPV elimination was achieved. The patient has no atypical cells in liquid-based cytology investigation after PDT.