The value of cytological examination of the urine in the staging of invasive carcinoma of the cervix - a prospective study

During the period July 1976 - December 1978 midstream urine specimens were collected from all new patients with invasive cervical carcinoma admitted to Tygerberg Hospital, Parowvallei, CP. All specimens were cytologically screened to try and establish any correlation between the cytological result an the clinical staging. A very high proportion (24.2%) of specimens unsuitable for screening and unacceptable false-negative and false-positive rates forced us to abandon this prospective study. From January 1979 to July 1980 the study was repeated on catheter specimens of urine. The final analysis of the second series revealed that a catheter specimen had definite advantages, but a detection rate of only 37.5% and a false-negative rate of 62.5% forced us to conclude that urinary cytological examination is at present too inaccurate to be of any value in the staging of invasive cervical carcinoma.