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Triage of women with minor abnormal cervical cytology: Meta‐analysis of the accuracy of an assay targeting messenger ribonucleic acid of 5 high‐risk human papillomavirus types
Author(s) -
Verdoodt Freija,
Szarewski Anne,
Halfon Philippe,
Cuschieri Kate,
Arbyn Marc
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
cancer cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1934-6638
pISSN - 1934-662X
DOI - 10.1002/cncy.21325
Subject(s) - medicine , cervical intraepithelial neoplasia , cytology , nasba , triage , confidence interval , hybrid capture , meta analysis , oncology , colposcopy , papillomaviridae , cervical cancer , cancer , gynecology , gastroenterology , obstetrics , pathology , rna , biology , gene , genetics , emergency medicine
BACKGROUND High‐risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) DNA detection is generally accepted for the triage of women with a cytologic diagnosis of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC‐US). However, no consensus has been reached on the optimal management of low‐grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL). METHODS In this meta‐analysis, the diagnostic accuracy of nucleic acid sequence‐based amplification (NASBA) detection of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) of 5 hrHPV types (the PreTect HPV‐Proofer and NucliSENS EasyQ tests) for detecting grade 2 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or worse (CIN2+) and CIN3+ was assessed in women who had a diagnosis of ASC‐US and LSIL. The results were compared with the Hybrid Capture‐2 (HC2) assay, which detects the DNA of 13 hrHPV types. A bivariate random‐effect model that incorporated the intrinsic correlation between the true‐positive and false‐positive rates was used for a pooled meta‐analysis. RESULTS Considering underlying CIN2+, the pooled absolute sensitivity of the 10 included studies was 75.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 68.1%‐82.7%) and 76.2% (95% CI, 68.3%‐76.9%) for the triage of ASC‐US and LSIL, respectively. The pooled absolute specificity to exclude CIN2+ was 77.9% (95% CI, 70.1%‐85.7%) and 74.2% (95% CI, 69.5%‐78.8%) in women with ASC‐US and LSIL, respectively. Five studies allowed direct comparison of the mRNA assays with HC2. Considering CIN2+ in women with ASC‐US and LSIL, mRNA testing was substantially more specific than the HC2 assay (ratio: 1.98 and 3.36, respectively; P < .001) but was less sensitive (ratio: 0.80 and 0.74, respectively; P < .001). CONCLUSIONS HPV assays for detecting the mRNA of 5 hrHPV types may reduce the over‐diagnosis of women who have minor cytologic abnormalities. However, given the lower sensitivity, women with negative mRNA test results cannot be considered free of CIN2+ and require further surveillance. Cancer (Cancer Cytopathol) 2013;121:675–687 . © 2013 American Cancer Society .