Cervical screening guidelines now recommend repeat cotesting of patients aged 30 years and older having a human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) in 1 year as preferred management. Only limited follow-up data on patients with HPV-negative LSILs are available from routine US clinical practice settings.
In total, 680 patients with Hybrid Capture 2 (Qiagen, Hinden, Germany) high-risk HPV-negative LSIL ThinPrep (Hologic, Marlborough, MA) results were identified. Patients' ages and histopathologic, cytologic, and HPV follow-up results were identified.
Among 680 patients with HPV-negative LSILs, 468 had follow-up within 1 year. During the study period, 14 (3.0%) of 468 had follow-up high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and 184 (39.3%) LSIL findings. No diagnoses of cervical carcinoma were documented. There were no significant follow-up differences between age groups. Of the 321 patients who had follow-up HPV testing, 271 (84.4%) had negative and 50 (15.6%) had positive HPV results.
This is the largest study documenting follow-up results for patients with HPV-negative LSIL results based on prevalent US FDA-approved cotesting methods from one collection vial. These data document that risk for follow-up HSILs in these patients is low and also that no cervical cancers were diagnosed. These findings support recent recommendations for repeat cotesting after 1 year as an appropriate option for patients with HPV-negative LSIL results.