• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.15
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• pp.6405-6409
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• 2014

Background: To study the prevalence of abnormal anal cytology by Papanicolaou (Pap) technique in HIV-infected women who attended a HIV clinic at Prapokklao Hospital, Chanthaburi, Thailand. Materials and Methods: HIV-infected women who attended a HIV clinic at Prapokklao Hospital from March 2013 to February 2014 were recruited for anal Pap smears. Participants who had abnormal results of equally or over "abnormal squamous/glandular cells of undetermined significance" (ASC-US) were classified as abnormal anal cytology. Results: A total of 590 anal Pap smears were performed at HIV clinic of Prapokklao Hospital during the study period. There were only 13 patients who had abnormal Pap tests, which were: 11 ASC-US and 2 HSIL (high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion). The prevalence of abnormal anal Pap smears in HIV-infected women who attended HIV clinic at Prapokklao Hospital was 2.2 percent. Percentage of high risk HPV in patients who had abnormal Pap test was 88.9 (8/9). Conclusions: The prevalence of abnormal anal Papanicolaou smears in HIV-infected women who attended the HIV clinic at Prapokklao hospital was quite low in comparison to the earlier literature.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2211-2215
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• 2014

Background: To examine the incidence of positive vaginal surgical margins and determine the predicting factors following radical hysterectomy for stage IB1 carcinoma of the cervix. Materials and Methods: The clinical and histological data of 656 FIGO stage IB1 cervical cancer patients who had radical hysterectomy with bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy (RHPL) from January 2003 to December 2012 were retrospectively reviewed and were analyzed for their association with a positive vaginal surgical margin. A p-value of < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Thirty-five patients (5.3%) had positive vaginal surgical margins following RHPL; 24 (3.7%) for intraepithelial lesions and 11 (1.7%) for carcinoma. On multivariate analysis, microscopic vaginal involvement by high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion and/or carcinoma (adjusted odd ratio (OR) 186.8; 95% confidence interval (CI) 48.5-718.5) and squamous histology (OR 8.7; 95% CI 1.7-44.0), were significantly associated with positive vaginal surgical margin. Conclusions: Microscopic vaginal involvement by HSIL and/or carcinoma are strong predictors for positive vaginal surgical margins for stage IB1 cervical cancer patients undergoing radical hysterectomy. Preoperative 'mapping' colposcopy or other strategies should be considered to ensure optimal vaginal resection.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1519-1523
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• 2015

Infection of the uterine cervix by human papilloma viruses (HPV) may be associated with cervical pre-cancer and invasive cervical carcinoma if left untreated. With advance in molecular techniques, it has become easier to detect the resence of HPV DNA long before the appearance of any lesion. This study concerned cervical scrape samples of 310 married non-pregnant women attending a gynecology outpatient department for both Pap and PCR testing to detect HPV DNA. Nested PCR using primers for L1 consensus gene with My9/My11 and GP6+/GP5+followed by multiplex PCR were carried out to detect HPV 16 and HPV18. Result: HPV prevalence was 11.9% out of which 3.67% cases of negative for intra-epithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM) and in 71.1% (27/38) of atypical cervical smears were HPV positive. There was increasing trend of high-risk-HPV positivity (HR HPV 16 and 18), from 20% in benign cytology (NILM) to 42.9 % in LSIL, 71.41% in HSIL and 100% in SCC. There was highly significant association of HPV infection with cervical lesion ($x^2=144.0$, p<0.01) and also with type specific HPV prevalence ($x^2=7.761^*$, p<0.05).

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6909-6912
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• 2015

Cancer is a major public health problem due to the jeavy disease burden, fatality and tendency for increased incidence. Of all cancer types, cervical cancer is reported to be the fourth most common cancer in women, and the seventh overall, with an estimated 528,000 new cases worldwide in 2012. It features a long preclinical phase with slowly progressing precancerous lesions such as CIN 2 and 3 and adenocarcinoma in situ. Therefore, screening programs such as with Pap smear tests may play an important role in cervical cancer prevention. The purpose of this study was to present results of a Pap smear screening survey for cervical cancer targeting women living in an urban area in the province of Mersin, located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. This community-based descriptive study included women living at Akdeniz county of Mersin province. A total of 1,032 screened women between 30 and 65 ages within the routine screening programme constituted the study population. The mean age of the participants was $43.8{\pm}8.6$ (min. 30, max. 65) years. The percentage of the participants who had previously undergone smears was 40.6%. Epithelial cell changes were found in 26 (2.5%) participants, with ASC-US in 18 (1.7%), ASC-H in 2 (0.2%), LSIL in 5 (0.5%) and HSIL in 1 (0.1%). The most common clinical presentation together with epithelial changes was abnormal vaginal discharge. Taking into account the presence of women who had never undergone Pap test; it should be offered at primary level of health care in the form of a community-based service to achieve reduced morbidity and mortality rates.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.7271-7275
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• 2015

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of significant lesions defined as high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL), adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) and invasive carcinoma in women who had HPV-positive and cytology negative co-testing screening results. This retrospective study was conducted in Chiang Mai University Hospital between May, 2013 and August, 2014. Hybrid capture 2 (HC2) was used for HPV testing and conventional Pap smears for cytologic screening. A repeat liquid-based cytology (LBC) was performed in women with such co-testing results followed by colposcopy. Random biopsy was performed in cases of normal colposcopic findings. Further investigations were carried out according to the biopsy or the repeat LBC results. During the study period, 273 women met the criteria and participated in the study. The mean age of these women was 46.4 years with 30% of them reporting more than one partner. The median interval time to colposcopy was 165 days. About 40% showed an abnormality in the repeat cytology. Significant cervical lesions were found in 20 (7.3%) women, including 2 invasive cancers. Of interest was that only 2 of 20 significant lesions were diagnosed by colposcopic examination while the remainder were initially detected by cervical biopsy and abnormal repeat cytology. In conclusion, the prevalence of significant cervical lesions in HPV positive and cytology negative women in Northern Thailand was 7.3%. Further diagnostic work up with repeat cytology follow by colposcopy is recommended. Random biopsy should be performed even when the colposcopic findings are normal.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.18
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• pp.8495-8501
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• 2016

Purpose: This study was conducted to assess the agreement and differences between cervical self-sampling with a Kato device (KSSD) and gynecologist sampling for Pap cytology and human papillomavirus DNA (HPV DNA) detection. Materials and Methods: Women underwent self-sampling followed by gynecologist sampling during screening at two primary health clinics. Pap cytology of cervical specimens was evaluated for specimen adequacy, presence of endocervical cells or transformation zone cells and cytological interpretation for cells abnormalities. Cervical specimens were also extracted and tested for HPV DNA detection. Positive HPV smears underwent gene sequencing and HPV genotyping by referring to the online NCBI gene bank. Results were compared between samplings by Kappa agreement and McNemar test. Results: For Pap specimen adequacy, KSSD showed 100% agreement with gynecologist sampling but had only 32.3% agreement for presence of endocervical cells. Both sampling showed 100% agreement with only 1 case detected HSIL favouring CIN2 for cytology result. HPV DNA detection showed 86.2%agreement (K=0.64, 95% CI 0.524-0.756, p=0.001) between samplings. KSSD and gynaecologist sampling identified high risk HPV in 17.3% and 23.9% respectively (p=0.014). Conclusion: The self-sampling using Kato device can serve as a tool in Pap cytology and HPV DNA detection in low resource settings in Malaysia. Self-sampling devices such as KSSD can be used as an alternative technique to gynaecologist sampling for cervical cancer screening among rural populations in Malaysia.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.4457-4461
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• 2016

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology, as diagnosed using a liquid-based cytology technique, in pregnant women attending the Antenatal Care (ANC) clinic at Siriraj Hospital. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 655 first-visit pregnant women who attended ANC clinic at Siriraj Hospital during June to November 2015 study period. After receiving routine antenatal care, cervical cytology screening was performed with the Siriraj liquid-based cytology technique. All specimens were reviewed by a certified cytopathologist using Bethesda System 2001 criteria. Patients with abnormal PAP results characterized as epithelial cell abnormalities were referred to a gynecologic oncologist for further management according to ASCCP Guidelines 2012. Results: Mean age of participants was $28.9{\pm}6.2$ years. Prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology was 3.4% (95% CI: 2.0-4.7). Among this group, there were ASC-US, ASC-H, LSIL, HSIL for 12(1.8%), 2(0.3%), 7(1.1%) and 1(0.2%), respectively. In 633 specimens of the normal group, infection was identified in 158 specimens (24.1%) which were caused by Candida spp. and Trichomonas vaginalis. Regarding patient perception about the importance of cervical cancer screening, although most women perceived screening to be important, 54% of participants had never been screened for cervical cancer. Rate of loss to follow-up in the postpartum period was as high as 41.8%. Conclusions: Prevalence of abnormal cervical cytology in pregnant women attending the ANC clinic at Siriraj Hospital was 3.4%. Inclusion of cervical cancer screening as part of antenatal assessment can help to identify precancerous lesions or cervical cancers in patients who might otherwise not be screened, thereby facilitating early treatment and improved patient outcomes.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.2069-2074
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• 2014

Purpose: To appraise the frequency of cervical cytological abnormalities in a population at normal risk via analysing the archive records of cytology for the period of approximately 9,5 years, comparing them with patient demographic charecteristics, and discuss the results for women under age of 35. Materials and Methods: A total of 32,578 cases of Pap smears were retrieved and analysed from our archive included the Pap tests performed between January 2001 and April 2010 at the Early Cancer Screening, Diagnosing and Education Center by the consent of three pathologists via utilizing the Bethesda System Criteria 2001 and the results were compared with some demographical characteristics. Results: Our rate of the cervical cytological abnormality was 1.83%, with ASCUS in 1.18%, LSIL in 0.39, HSIL in 0.16%, AGUS in 0.07%, squamous cell carcinoma in 0.02%, and adenoarcinoma in 0.006%. Cytological abnormalities were detected mostly in those with higher age, lower parity, and premenopausal period whereas the smoking status was without influence. Bacterial vaginosis (5.6%) was the most frequent infectious finding (Candida albicans 2.7%; Actinomyces sp. 1.3%; and Trichomonas vaginalis 0.2%) detected on the smears. The rate of abnormal cervical cytology was 9.5% among the women aged between 30-34. Conclusions: Early detection of the cervical abnormalities by means of the regular cervical cancer screening programmes is useful to attenuate the incidence, mortality, and morbidity of cervical cancer. Our prevalence of the cytological abnormalities was much lower than the one in Western populations in general but very similar to those reported from other Islamic countries that may be explained by the conservative lifestyle and the lower prevalence of HPV in Turkey. A remarkable rate of abnormal cervical cytology of women aged 30-34 was pointed out in the present study.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2979-2982
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• 2013

Cervical cancer is a commonly-encountered malignant tumor in women. Cervical screening is particularly important due to early symptoms being deficient in specificity. The main purpose of the study is to assess the application value of cervical thinprep cytologic test (TCT) and human papillomavirus (HPV) detection in screening for cervical cancer and precancerous lesions. In the study, cervical TCT and HPV detection were simultaneously performed on 12,500 patients selected in a gynecological clinic. Three hundred patients with positive results demonstrated by cervical TCT and/or HPV detection underwent cervical tissue biopsy under colposcopy, and pathological results were considered as the gold standard. The results revealed that 200 out of 12,500 patients were abnormal by TCT, in which 30 cases pertained to equivocal atypical squamous cells (ASCUS), 80 cases to low squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL), 70 cases to high squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and 20 cases to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). With increasing pathological grade of cervical biopsy, however, TCT positive rates did not rise. Two hundred and eighty out of 12,500 patients were detected as positive for HPV infection, in which 50 cases were chronic cervicitis and squamous metaplasia, 70 cases cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I, 60 cases CIN II, 70 cases CIN III and 30 cases invasive cervical carcinoma. Two hundred and thirty patients with high-risk HPV infection were detected. With increase in pathological grade, the positive rate of high-risk HPV also rose. The detection rates of HPV detection to CIN III and invasive cervical carcinoma as well as the total detection rate of lesions were significantly higher than that of TCT. Hence, HPV detection is a better method for screening of cervical cancer at present.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.3637-3641
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• 2016

To determine the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) among women with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) referred to colposcopy and the implications for clinical management in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), the present study was conducted. We included 200 women living in $Maring{\acute{a}}$/Brazil referred to colposcopy service between August 2012 and March 2013 due to an abnormal cytology from ASC-US until high-grade intraepithelial lesion (HSIL). HPV was detected and genotyped by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The mean age was $36.8{\pm}10.5$ years, and women with and without ASC-US had similar mean ages ($37.4{\pm}11.5$ and $36.4{\pm}9.96$ years, respectively). The highest prevalence of ASC-US occurred at 20-24 years (40%). HPV-DNA was positive in 164 (82.0%) women.Of the 57 women with ASC-US, 30 (52.6%) were HPV-DNA-positive and 21 (70%) were high-risk HPV-positive (HR-HPV); the latter was similar to women without ASC-US (76.9%) but with other abnormal cytological findings present. Our data demonstrated that performing tests for HR-HPV can be used for management of women with ASC-US to support the decision of which women should be referred for an immediate or later colposcopy. The same conclusions can be applied to other LMICs for which HPV testing for primary screening has not been adopted.