Objective: To assess the risk of cervical cancer and high grade cervical intraepithelial in women with negative human papillomavirus (HPV) and cytology atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) and to provide evidence for clinical management.
Methods: We pooled 17 population-based cross-sectional studies which were conducted across China from 1999 to 2008. Totally, 30 371 women aged 17-59 were included in these studies. All women received liquid-based cytology test (LBC), HPV testing (hybrid capture 2 test, HC2) and visual inspection with acetic acid test (VIA). Women with any positive result from above tests were referred to colposcopic examination. Totally, 28 810 women with complete results from HPV, cytology and pathology were included in the final analysis. Women with negative HPV (LBC-/HPV-) or negative cytology (LBC-) results served as the control, respectively. Risk on high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2+) was calculated for women with HPV negative and ASC-US results (ASC-US/HPV-).
Results: There were 22 003 women with LBC-/HPV-, 24 139 women with LBC-, and 1 834 with ASC-US/HPV- indentified in our study. CIN2+prevalence rates to the above women appeared as 0.05%, 0.36% and 0.16%, respectively. Compared with women with LBC-/HPV- and women with LBC-, the odds ratios (ORs) for CIN2+in women with ASC-US/HPV-were 3.00 (95%CI: 0.85-10.65) and 0.46 (95%CI:0.15-1.45), with adjusted ORs as 4.00 (95%CI: 1.08-14.87) and 0.47(95%CI: 0.15-1.49), respectively.
Conclusions: The risk of CIN2+ in women with ASC-US/HPV- was in between the risks of women with LBC-/HPV- or with LBC-. Based on the "equal risk, equal management" principle, women with ASC-US/HPV- were suggested to be followed under the '3-year interval' program, which was the same as for those cytology negative women. However, in areas with limited health resources, the follow-up interval can be extended to 5 years, similar to the management on women with LBC-/HPV-.