OBJECTIVETo evaluate the application value and feasibility of various cervical screening methods and to explore a rapid and efficient cervical cancer screening program for the women in the rural areas of China.

METHODSWe sequentially conducted human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA test by hybrid capture-2 (hc2) with cervical cells, liquid-based thinprep cytology test (TCT), visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), visual inspection with iodine (VILI), colposcopy respectively for the 2499 married women between 30 and 49 years from Xiushui county of Jiangxi province. All the detection methods were performed independently under double-blind design. Women who were diagnosed positive for having any VIA,VILI and colposcopy inspection or for those women who were diagnosed negative for VIA, VILI and colposcopy but with positive result of HPV or TCT test underwent cervical biopsy directly and endocervical curettage (ECC)when necessary. We performed cervical biopsy endocervical curettage within two weeks to observe the sensitive (SE), specificity (SP), negative predict value (NPV) and positive predict value (PPV) of these detection methods when used alone or combined each other, including HPV test, TCT inspection, VIA, VILI, and colposcopy, the pathological diagnosises of cervical tissue were confirmed by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) while the cytological findings were underegone through the updated program of TBS (The Bethesda System) in 2001.

RESULTSA total of 2499 women underwent the screening and found 443 women who were diagnosed as HPV positive, 337 women with abnormal cervical cytology and 27 women with ASC-H, 157 cases with ASCUS; 103 cases with HSIL, 49 cases with LSIL and 1 cervical cancer. According to the pathological findings. There were 181 women diagnosed as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or cervical cancer, including 81 cases with CIN1 37 cases with CIN2,60 case cervical cancer. The sensitivity rates of HPV, TCT, HPV+ TCT, VIA, VILI, VIA+VILI and colposcopy were 96.67%, 89.47%, 97.98%, 56.57%, 36.36%, 63.64% and 39.39%, and the specificity rates were 85.00%, 96.91%, 86.97%, 94.60%, 96.23%, 92.97% and 98.14% respectively.

CONCLUSIONHPV + TCT seemed to be more sensitive than other screening methods in the cervical cancer screening program.