Comparative analysis of HPV DNA and LBC for screening of cervical cancer in women with unhealthy cervix

Background: The cervical cancer is one of the leading cause of cancer death among women in developing and developed countries. Screening for cervical cancer is essential as the women are often asymptomatic and it also reduces both the incidence and mortality of the cancer cervix if detected in early stage. Objectives: We aimed to determine sensitivity and specificity of liquid based cytology (LBC) and HPV DNA to detect pre-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions of cervix. Methods: This was a prospective observational study including 506 women of reproductive, perimenopausal and postmenopausal age group who presented with abnormal vaginal discharge, post coital bleeding, abnormal uterine bleeding, postmenopausal bleeding or had unhealthy cervix on examination, who were subjected to screening by doing LBC and HPV DNA testing. The diagnosis of LBC and HPV DNA was compared against the gold standard of cervical biopsy. The data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS ver 21.0. A p