Risk of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Grade 2 or 3 after Loop Electrosurgical Excision Procedure Associated with Human Papillomavirus Type 16 Variants

Identification of factors associated with risk of relapse after treatment for high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) has important clinical implications. Study subjects were women participating in the Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance and Low-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion Triage Study who were treated for CIN3 by loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) and who had a baseline infection with human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16). These women were followed every 6 months for 2 years. Post-LEEP CIN2-3 was found in 20 (10.0%) of the 201 women. An adjusted relative risk of 3.1 (95% confidence interval, 1.1–8.9) was associated with HPV16 non-European, compared with European, variants, a finding that is consistent with the variant-related risk of prevalent/incident high-grade CIN.