Cervical Cancer Screening in South Florida Veteran Population 2014-2020: Cytology and High-Risk HPV Correlation and HPV Epidemiology

Abstract

ABSTRACTObjectiveThis project aims to use our robust women’s health patient data to analyze the correlation between cytology and Hr-HPV testing, study performance of Hr-HPV testing for detecting cytology lesions, and examine epidemiologic measures of HPV infections in the women’s veteran population.MethodsWe collected patient data from 2014 to 2020 from our computerized patient record system. We performed HPV assays using the ROCHE 4800 system. The COBAS HPV assay detects HPV 16, HPV 18, and 12 other HPV types (31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 56, 58, 59, 66, and 68). We organized cytology results and Hr-HPV assays with Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel for analysis.ResultsA total of 9437 cervical specimens were co-tested. High-grade cytology lesions (HSIL or higher and ASC-H) were overwhelmingly positive for Hr-HPV (94.1% and 87.2%, respectively). Low-grade cytology lesions (LSIL and ASC-US) were positive for Hr-HPV in lower percentages (72.6% and 54.9%, respectively). Hr-HPV testing had a sensitivity of 91.3%, a specificity of 93.1%, a positive predictive value of 16.4%, and a negative predictive value of 99.8% for detecting high-grade cytology lesions. Hr-HPV testing had a lower performance for detecting low-grade cytology lesions. Ten (10) cases had high-grade cytology and negative Hr-HPV test. Nine out of ten (9/10) of these patients showed no dysplasia (6) or low-grade dysplasia (3) on subsequent biopsy. Overall, 14.4% of tests were positive for Hr-HPV. The highest positive Hr-HPV test rates were in the second and eighth decades of life, 25.1% and 22.0%, respectively. In women over age 30, HPV types 16 and 18 were present in 11.7% and 6.4% of tests, respectively. Other HPV types were present in 82.3% of tests.ConclusionsHr-HPV testing has high performance for detecting high-grade cytology lesions. We believe our findings are in accordance with recent studies and guidelines that recommend primary Hr-HPV testing as the preferred screening method. The percentage of positive Hr-HPV tests and rates for age and HPV types 16 and 18 in our women’s veteran population suggest similar HPV prevalence to that of the general US population.