Risk-based triage strategy by extended HPV genotyping for women with ASC-US cytology

Xuan Rao & Ruizhe Chen · 2025-01-17

We attempted to evaluate the immediate high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion-cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2/3 or worse (HSIL-CIN2+/3+, hereafter referred to as CIN2+/3+) risk of specific human papillomavirus (HPV) genotype and form the precise risk-based triage strategy for atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) women. The clinical data of ASC-US women who underwent HPV genotyping testing and colposcopy were retrospectively reviewed. The distribution and CIN2+/3+ risks of specific HPV genotype were assessed by three approaches. The risk-based triage strategy was further established, and its efficacy in detecting CIN2+/3+ was estimated. Totally, 5553 ASC-US women including 3648 HPV-positive and 1905 HPV-negative were analysed. CIN2+/3+ were 662/319 cases, including 639/306 HPV-positive and 23/13 HPV-negative women. HPV16, HPV52, HPV58 and HPV18 were always among the top 5 ranking genotypes, no matter in HPV-positive women or in HPV-positive CIN2+/3+ cases. HPV16 and HPV33 carried the highest risk, while HPV73 and 26 carried the least risk for CIN2+/3+. Based on the immediate CIN2+/3+ risk of specific HPV genotype, 18 HPVs were divided into three risk-stratified groups. Only women infected with HPVs included in group A were necessary for immediate colposcopy. Compared with conventional strategy, this new risk-based strategy not only had higher specificity (CIN2+: A new triage strategy for ASC-US women was successfully constructed based on CIN2+/3+ risks of 14 high-risk and 4 intermediate-risk HPVs, which could significantly reduce unnecessary colposcopies.
Funding

Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province, China

2023C03169

Open Fund from Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Precision Diagnosis and Therapy for Major Gynecological Diseases, Women’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine

ZDFY2022-CD-7