Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Although potentially preventable, cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Women living in resource-limited countries are especially at risk due to poor access to cervical cancer screening and treatment. Alternative cervical cancer screening methodologies have been investigated where cytology-based screening is not feasible. This study aimed to assess the test performance of naked eye visual inspection analysis, in addition to the comparative performance of physician/colposcopist clinical impression to Reid’s colposcopic index (RCI) grading system for histopathology, in the South African setting.
METHODS: Women living with HIV (WLWH) and HIV-negative women aged 25 to 65 were recruited from three sites in South Africa. A
cross-sectional study which assessed visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), visual inspection with lugols iodine (VILI), colposcopic
impression and RCI for the detection of histologically confirmed CIN2+ and CIN3+ was performed. Test positivity rates, sensitivity,
specificity, and predictive values were calculated.
RESULTS: Three hundred and forty-four WLWH and 409 HIV-negative women, with a median age of 40 years, were included in
this analysis. Histologically confirmed CIN2+ was present in 38.51% and CIN3+ in 18.99%. Overall, positive test rates for VIA were
42.76%; VILI were 45.68%, colposcopic impression were 48.26% and RCI were 46.65%. Overall sensitivities/specificities for VIA and
VILI for CIN3+ were 76.92/65.25% and 75.52/61.31%, respectively. The sensitivities however increased for WLWH (VIA 82.61%; VILI
80.43%) and decreased in HIV-negative women (VIA 66.67%; VILI 66.67%). Colposcopic impression/RCI performed better in WLWH
(PPV 37.96/37.74%) than in HIV-negative women (PPV 25.63/26.80%).
CONCLUSION: The current study demonstrates that visual inspection methods perform better in WLWH than in HIV-negative women.
VIA and VILI performed similarly within each sub-population, as did colposcopic impression and RCI. The use of visual inspection
methods in cervical cancer screening in WLWH is warranted.
