• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.28-38
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of Pap smear screening of menopausal women in W city using a phenomenological methodology. The participants were 5 focus groups consisting of 37 menopausal women. They were selected using snowball sampling method. The data were collected through focus group interviews. Data were recorded and analyzed by Colazzi's method. Significant statements were extracted from the data resulting in 20 themes. These themes formed 12 clusters and 5 categories. The essential themes of the experience of cervical cancer screening emerged as : "unpleasant feelings during procedure", "ambivalent feelings about results", "be guided to seek health", "shrink from interaction with health professionals", "at ease about cervical cancer". The results indicated that cervical cancer prevention strategies for menopausal women need to be based on deep under standing of the personal experiences of Pap smear screening. In conclusion, it is suggested that more specified strategies are needed for menopausal women to encourage them to have regular screening.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2411-2414
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• 2016

Purpose: To determine the incidence of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2-3) among patients with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) Papanicolaou (Pap) smears. Materials and Methods: One-hundred and eighty-seven patients with ASC-US Pap smears who underwent colposcopy with histological study were enrolled between September 2007 and August 2015. Patient factors (including age, parity, current pills used, HIV status, age at first sexual intercourse and number of sexual partners) were obtained. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate clinical factors associated with CIN2-3. Results: CIN was diagnosed in 92 of 187 women (49.2%). Sixty-one of these (32.6%) had CIN1 and 31 (16.6%) had CIN2-3. There was no woman who had invasive cancer. There was no correlation of high-grade CIN with factors in this study including age, parity, current pills used, HIV status, age at first sexual intercourse and number of sexual partners. Conclusions: Data from this study showed no invasive cervical cancer was found in patients with ASC-US. There was no patient factor associated with high grade intraepithelial neoplasia in patients with ASC-US Pap smears.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4665-4667
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• 2012

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in Laos women and a screening programme, even with the PAP smear test (PAP test), has yet to be established for routine use. The Pap test is accepted as the most appropriate for cervical cancer screening in some settings but it is not commonly available in Laos hospitals, because there are few cytopathologists and gynecologists have little experience. As a pilot program, seminars for the PAP test were given in 2007 and 2008, and then PAP tests were carried out using self-sampling instrument (Kato's device) with 200 healthy volunteers in Setthathirath hospital, Laos, in 2008. The actual examination number was 196, divided into class I 104 (53.1%), class II 85 (43.3%), class IIIa 4 (2.0%), class IIIb 1 (0.5%), and class V 1 (0.5%) by modified Papanicolau classification. Four cases had menstruation. There were 6 cases with epithelial cell abnormalities including malignancy. There were 7 cases with fungus and 2 cases with trichomonas in Class II. More than 70% volunteers felt comfortable with the Kato's device and wanted to use it next time, because of the avoidance of the embarrassment and a low cost as compared with pelvic examination by gynecologists. This first trial for PAP test for healthy Laos women related to a hospital found three percent to have abnormal cervical epithelial cells. Therefore, this appraoch using a self-sampling device suggests that it should be planned for cervical cancer prevention in Laos.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6935-6939
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• 2015

Background: Currently, a comprehensive program for screening and early detection of cervical cancer does not exist in Iran. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of abnormal Papanicolaou (Pap) smears and some related factors among women living in Zanjan, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2012 in Zanjan on 4274 married women aged 20-65 years. The study participants were selected through two-stage cluster sampling. After obtaining written consent, demographic and fertility questionnaires were completed. Samples from cervix were obtained through a standard method using the Rover Cervex- Brush. Evaluation and interpretation of the samples were reported using the Bethesda 2001 method. Data were statistically analyzed using chi-square and logistic regression models. Results: Most inflammatory changes in the samples were mild (37.4%). Abnormal atypical changes in the epithelial cells were found in 4.04%. The highest percentage of abnormal changes in the epithelial cells was atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) (1.9%). Abnormal results of Pap smear was significantly and independently associated with age, papillomavirus infection, and lack of awareness about Pap smear tests. Conclusions: Given the high prevalence of inflammatory and precancerous changes in this study, compared to other studies in Iran and other Muslim countries, and the effect of demographic variables and individual factors on abnormal results, increasing the awareness of women and their families regarding the risk factors for cervical cancer, preventive measures such as screening, and timely treatment seem necessary.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4719-4724
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• 2012

This study aimed to analyse the participation of women of reproductive age in a cancer screening program, and survey reasons for non-screening in a region from Mexico with high cervical cancer mortality. A total of 281 obstetric patients from a previous HPV study in a social security hospital during 2008-2009 were included. Reasons for not participating in the screening were directly asked. HPV positive patients were invited to participate in an informative workshop, and they filled in a knowledge questionnaire. The women ranged in age from 14-47 years; 123 (43.8%) had never participated in screening, of which 97 (78.9%) had their first sexual intercourse 2 to 10 years ago, resulting in 25% HPV positive. Screening history was strongly associated with 2 or more gestations (OR=10.07, p=0.00) and older age (OR=6.69 p=0.00). When 197 women were contacted and interviewed, reasons referred for non-screening were ignorance, lack of interest or time, recent sexual onset, shame and fear. More than 50% of the workshop participants showed knowledge of HPV, while 38.9% and 25% knew about Pap smear and cervical cancer. A high percentage of women of reproductive age have never had a Pap smear. Promoting the screening program in medical facilities seems to be important in this population. New approaches to inform vulnerable individuals on the benefits of screening need to be implemented, especially for young women.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.17
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• pp.7437-7441
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• 2014

Background: Acceptability of self-sampling HPV testing is confirmed worldwide. However, some cultural differences may affect this question. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the acceptability of self-sampling HPV testing in Thai women. Materials and Methods: One hundred women aged 30-65 years with an intact cervix were included in this study. The participants were asked to do the Pap test by physicians and then brush type self-sampling instruments were assigned for self-collection and finally completed a questionnaire for acceptability evaluation. The questionnaire contains 2 parts. Part one covered general information of the participants and part two is the acceptability questions. Results: Mean age was 40.6 years. The incidence of high risk HPV detection in this study was 16%. The most common reason for doing Pap smear was for annual checkup. On the topic of ease of use, 85 % of the subjects agreed. Most of the participants (82%) reported that they felt less pain. However, reliability of the result was not satisfactory because 37% of the participants hesitated to rely on the results of the test. According to the price, if the price is less than 1,000 Baht (32.59 Baht = 1USD), 82% of the subjects would use it for their next screening. Conclusions: The acceptability of self-sampling device in this study is quite good but the reliability of the test was questioned by some of the participants. Moreover, the price of the test in Thailand may also influence the acceptability of the test.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.975-981
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• 2014

Cervical cancer is an issue of foremost importance globally, specifically affecting the developing nations. Significant advances have taken place with regard to diagnosis of cervical cancer, especially with screening. Appropriate screening measures can thus reduce the incidence of cervical cancer. The most desirable screening technique should be less invasive, easy to perform, cost-effective and cover a wide range of diagnostic icons. Manual liquid based cytology (MLBC) can be considered as one of the suitable technique for screening with the above-mentioned benefits. The aim of the current study was to compare two cervical screening techniques on the basis of different morphological parameters and staining parameters by using modified acetic acid Pap staining to see the possibility of reducing time economy involved in conventional Pap staining (CPS). The study was conducted on a total 88 cases and all were analyzed with both MLBC and CPS. Forty eight cases that were regarded as satisfactory on the basis of Bethesda system by both methods were further recruited for investigation. Their morphological parameters and staining quality were compared and scored according to a scoring system defined in the study. Quality indices was calculated for both staining procedures and smear techniques.

• The Korean Journal of Cytopathology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 1994

Cancer of the cervix is the most common malignancy in women in developing countries and the second most common cancer in women throughout the world with approximately 500,000 new cases each year. Prevention of this large number of premature deaths among women is, therefore, a goal worthy of urgent and serious consideration. Due to its high diagnostic disagreement among pathologists and large quantity of specimens, it is necessary to develop an automatic screening system measuring morphologic and densitometric features of the samples. Many research works have been published but most of them used Feulgen stained specimens which are not a usual staining method used in clinics. In this thesis, an automatic cancerous nucleus detection method essential to a screening system with papanicolaou stained specimens called Pap-smear is proposed which employs image processing techniques. It uses edge information to segment objects and morphologic as well as densitometric information to distinguish cancerous nuclei from dirts or normal nuclei. It has produced useful results in our study.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.1992-1998
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• 2007

It is important to obtain conn cytodiagnosis to classify background, cytoplasm, and nucleus from the diagnostic image. This study mose an algorithm that detects and classifies carcinoma cells of the uterine cervix in Pap smear using features of cervical cancer. It applies Median filter and Gaussian filter to get noise-removed nucleus area and also applies Kapur method in binarization of the resultant image. We apply 8-directional contour tracking algorithm and stretching technique to identify and revise clustered cells that often hinder to obtain correct analysis. The resulted nucleus area has distinguishable features such as cell size, integration rate, and directional coefficient from normal cells so that we can detect and classify carcinoma cells successfully. The experiment results show that the performance of the algorithm is competitive with human expert.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2501-2505
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• 2015

Purpose: The present study was carried out to measure knowledge level and behavior of family health personnel (FHP) in Izmir on early diagnosis of breast and cervical cancers. Materials and Methods: The study population of this cross-sectional study was not selected. A questionnaire was applied to all FHP to measure knowledge level and behavior about cancer. The participation rate was 88%. Breast examination, mammography analysis, Papanicolaou smear applications were determined as dependent variables, and knowledge level about breast and cervical cancer, age, professional time as FHP as independent variables. Data were evaluated using definitive statistics, chi-square and logistic regression tests in SPSS software package for Windows 15.0. Results: A total of 970 family health personnel participated in the research. The age range was 20-45 years (82.4%). Mean age was $37.9{\pm}7.4$. Response rate was 87.3%. Of the participants, 88.4% performed breast self-examination. Rate of performing mammography at least once was 24.1%. Rate of performing Pap-smear examination at least once was 61.0%. In logistic regression analyses, it was determined that people with knowledge on breast and cervical cancer were those performing breast self-examination, mammography and Pap-smear examinations (p<0.05. Conclusions: It is essential that the knowledge, behavior and manners of health providers on early diagnosis for cancer increases awareness in the general population and provides information on execution ofthe most effective methods for generating a healthy society.