Conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas sobre el test de Papanicolaou y estadificación del cáncer de cuello uterino / Knowledge, attitudes and practices about the Papanicolaou test and cervical cancer staging

En Uruguay se registran 351 nuevos casos de cáncer de cuello uterino y mueren en promedio 140 mujeres por esta causa. Se dispone de un Programa de Prevención Secundaria del Cáncer de Cuello Uterino cuyo test de tamizaje es el Papanicolaou convencional, que ofrece la disponibilidad del test para las usuarias de la Administración de los Servicios de Salud del Estado y existen también normas estatales que obligan a los prestadores del sistema de salud privada a brindarlo sin costo a sus usuarias. No obstante ello, se comprueba un importante número de mujeres que consultan en estadios avanzados de la enfermedad, con pocas posibilidades de curación. Objetivo: determinar los conocimientos, las actitudes, las prácticas y el estadio de la enfermedad en usuarias del Centro Hospitalario Pereira Rossell y del Hospital de Clínicas con el diagnóstico de cáncer cuello uterino invasor realizado durante el año 2009. Material y método: estudio observacional, descriptivo, aplicado a todas las mujeres con diagnóstico de cáncer de cuello uterino invasor a través de una encuesta y revisión de historias clínicas, realizado entre junio de 2010 y setiembre de 2011. Resultados: se entrevistaron 68 pacientes, el 75% de las usuarias contestó en forma adecuada sobre la utilidad del test, el mismo porcentaje declaró que no se hacía el test por falta de motivación. En la práctica solo 13% de las pacientes se realizó el Papanicolaou por control. Las principales barreras declaradas fueron las demoras en la sala de espera y en acceder a la fecha y hora para realizarse el estudio en los servicios de salud. El 47% de los casos encuestados iniciaron su tratamiento en estadios avanzados de la enfermedad. Conclusión: se determina que las usuarias no asumen una conducta preventiva a pesar de tener el conocimiento adecuado. El sistema de salud debería implementar estrategias de información adecuadas para que utilicen en el momento oportuno y frecuencia recomendada los exámenes de tamizaje.

Abstract In Uruguay there are 351 new cases of cervical cancer and an average of 140 women die from this disease. Today, there is a Program for the Secondary Prevention of Cervical Cancer, the screening of which is done with the conventional Pap test for users of the Public Health System. Likewise, there are national provisions that oblige private health providers to offer it for free. Notwithstanding this, a large number of women consult with advanced stages of the disease, with little possibilities for cure. Objective: to determine awareness, attitudes, practices and stage of the disease for users of the Pereira Rossell Hospital Center and the University Hospital with an invasive cervical cancer diagnosis during 2009. Method: observational, descriptive study applied to all women with a diagnosis of invasive cervical cancer through survey and the review of medical histories, performed from June, 2010 through September 2011. Results: 68 patients were interviewed, 75% of whom proved they knew about the test’s usefulness, although the same percentage of women declared they failed to have it due to lack of motivation. As a matter of fact, only 13% of women sought a Pap smear test for control. According to what they stated, the main barriers were delays in the waiting room and in access to an appointment to have the test done hospital in the health systems. 47% of surveyed patients initiated treatment in advanced stages of the disease. Conclusion: the study reveals users fail to undertake a preventive behavior in spite of their being aware of the test and its usefulness. The health system should implement appropriate information strategies so that the screening tests are timely and frequently used.

Resumo No Uruguai são registrados 351 novos casos de câncer de colo de útero y morrem em média 140 mulheres por ano por essa causa. Existe um Programa de Prevenção Secundaria de Câncer de Colo de Útero que emprega o exame de Papanicolaou convencional para tamizagem de paciente; este programa oferece este exame gratuitamente às usuárias de ASSE (Administración de los Servicios de Salud del Estado) existindo ademais normas governamentais que obrigam os prestadores do sistema de saúde privada a oferecê-lo sem custo às suas usuárias. No entanto, um número significativo de mulheres consultam em estádios avançados da doença, com poucas possibilidades de cura. Objetivo: determinar os conhecimentos, atitudes, práticas e o estádio da doença em usuárias do CHPR (Centro Hospitalario Pereira Rossell) e do HC (Hospital de Clínicas) com diagnóstico de câncer de colo de útero invasor realizado durante o ano 2009. Material e método: estudo observacional, descritivo, incluindo todas as mulheres com diagnóstico de câncer de colo útero invasor através de entrevistas e revisão de prontuário de paciente, realizado entre junho de 2010 e setembro de 2011. Resultados: 68 pacientes foram entrevistadas; 75% das usuárias respondeu adequadamente sobre a utilidade do exame; a mesma porcentagem declarou que não fazia o exame por falta de motivação. Na prática somente 13% das pacientes fez o exame de Papanicolaou por controle. As principais barreiras declaradas foram as demoras na sala de espera e conseguir dia e hora para a realização do exame nos serviços de saúde. 47% das entrevistadas iniciou seu tratamento em estádios avançados da doença. Conclusão: as usuárias não assumem uma conduta preventiva apesar de ter conhecimento adequado. O sistema de saúde deveria implementar estratégias adequadas de informação para que realizem os exames de tamizagem no momento oportuno e com a frequência recomendada.

Prevalence of type-specific HPV infection in Uruguay.

The aim of this work was to describe the prevalence of type-specific Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in women attending organized cervical cancer screening program in Uruguay. Nine hundred sixty-five liquid cervical cell samples obtained after collection of cervical smears for cytology were assessed for HPV DNA using the Papillocheck system (Greiner BioOne). The overall prevalence of High-Risk (HR) HPV infections was 20.8% and increased from 16.5% in women with normal cytology to 93.3% in HSIL. Prevalence of HPV 16 and/or 18 was 6.3% and HPV 16 was the most prevalent genotype in normal cytology (3.6%). The five most prevalent genotypes were HPV 16, 31, 51, 56, and 39. The overall prevalence peaked below age 30. This study provides essential baseline information at national level on type-specific HPV prevalence in Uruguay before the introduction of HPV vaccination. It documents the current prevalence of each of the oncogenic genotypes in a population attending cervical cancer screening program, suggesting that at least 64.7% of high risk lesions are potentially preventable by available HPV vaccines, and possibly augmentable if cross-protection against non-vaccine HPV types 31, 33, and 45 is confirmed.

Worldwide human papillomavirus genotype attribution in over 2000 cases of intraepithelial and invasive lesions of the vulva.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) contribution in vulvar intraepithelial lesions (VIN) and invasive vulvar cancer (IVC) is not clearly established. This study provides novel data on HPV markers in a large series of VIN and IVC lesions. METHODS: Histologically confirmed VIN and IVC from 39 countries were assembled at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO). HPV-DNA detection was done by polymerase chain reaction using SPF-10 broad-spectrum primers and genotyping by reverse hybridisation line probe assay (LiPA25) (version 1). IVC cases were tested for p16(INK4a) by immunohistochemistry (CINtec histology kit, ROCHE). An IVC was considered HPV driven if both HPV-DNA and p16(INK4a) overexpression were observed simultaneously. Data analyses included algorithms allocating multiple infections to calculate type-specific contribution and logistic regression models to estimate adjusted prevalence (AP) and its 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Of 2296 cases, 587 were VIN and 1709 IVC. HPV-DNA was detected in 86.7% and 28.6% of the cases respectively. Amongst IVC cases, 25.1% were both HPV-DNA and p16(INK4a) positive. IVC cases were largely keratinising squamous cell carcinoma (KSCC) (N=1234). Overall prevalence of HPV related IVC cases was highest in younger women for any histological subtype. SCC with warty or basaloid features (SCC_WB) (N=326) were more likely to be HPV and p16(INK4a) positive (AP=69.5%, CI=63.6-74.8) versus KSCC (AP=11.5%, CI=9.7-13.5). HPV 16 was the commonest type (72.5%) followed by HPV 33 (6.5%) and HPV 18 (4.6%). Enrichment from VIN to IVC was significantly high for HPV 45 (8.5-fold). CONCLUSION: Combined data from HPV-DNA and p16(INK4a) testing are likely to represent a closer estimate of the real fraction of IVC induced by HPV. Our results indicate that HPV contribution in invasive vulvar cancer has probably been overestimated. HPV 16 remains the major player worldwide.

Prevalence and distribution of high-risk human papillomavirus genotypes in invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix in Uruguay.

OBJECTIVES: Persistent infection with specific genotypes of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) is the main cause of invasive cervical cancer (ICC). Only a few of the various HPV types account for most of the cases worldwide, and geographical differences in their distribution are evident. Data from locally prevalent genotypes are essential in view of introduction of HPV type-specific prophylactic vaccines. METHODS: In this work, we have investigated HPV type distribution in samples of ICC cases that occurred in Uruguayan women. DNA extracted from ICC treated in Centro Hospitalario Pereira Rossell of Montevideo between 1999 and 2007 were analyzed. Search and typing were performed by polymerase chain reaction using generic GP5+/GP6+ primers and specific primers for HPV types 16, 18, 33, and 45. Positive GP5+/GP6+ samples, which were negative for all 4 high-risk HPV-specific types screened were further analyzed by sequencing. RESULTS: Human papillomavirus DNA sequences were found in 163 (92.6%) of 176 cases. The most prevalent genotypes were HPV16 (67.6%) and HPV18 (8.5%) followed by HPV45 (6.8%) and HPV33 (3.4%), as single or mixed infection. Other less frequent genotypes were HPV31, HPV35, HPV39, HPV51, HPV52, HPV58, HPV66, and HPV73. The viral type could not be determined (HPV X) in 1 case (0.6%) of the HPV DNA-positive cervical cancers and double infections were found in 1.7% of the cases. The higher percentage of most aggressive HPV (16/18/45) genotypes was detected in cases diagnosed at younger than 60 years old, whereas these genotypes were less frequent in older patients. CONCLUSION: We conclude that HPV types 16, 18, and 45 have a very high prevalence in ICC of Uruguayan women. Results provide evidence that 16 of 18 infections are more aggressive, but most cancers could be vaccine preventable.

Contribution of intraoperative cytology to the diagnosis of ovarian lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the performance of intraoperative cytological diagnosis and its contribution to enhance the diagnostic concordance of intraoperative procedures with definitive histological diagnosis in ovarian lesions. Descriptions of cytologic features of some ovarian lesions as seen in imprint and smear specimens are documented. Advantages and limitations of cytological specimens are underscored. STUDY DESIGN: We performed a retrospective review of intraoperative consultations of ovarian neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of 337 cases identified from the pathologic records of our laboratory. All cases evaluated had intraoperative cytological imprint or smear specimens. The intraoperative diagnosis transmitted to the surgeon was the combined result of a thorough macroscopic study of the surgical specimens, frozen section analysis of tissue samples obtained from the most representative areas, evaluation of smear and imprint cytological specimens, and cyto-histological correlation. The intraoperative diagnosis was compared with the final histological diagnosis. Blinded review of cytological slides in discrepant cases was carried out. RESULTS: Final histological diagnosis showed 268 benign lesions, 49 malignant tumors and 20 borderline epithelial tumors. Diagnostic accuracy was 97%, sensitivity 93%, specificity 98%, positive predictive value 91% and negative predictive value 98%. After the cytological review of the discrepant cases, accuracy increased to 98.5%, specificity to 100%, and positive predictive value to 100%. The sensitivity and negative predictive values did not change, remaining 93 and 98%, respectively. The proportion of false positives dropped from 7 (2.1%) to 0, and the proportion of false negatives from 9 (2.7%) to 5 (1.5%). The new values showed significant differences for specificity (p=0.0401), positive predictive value (p=0.0479) and for the proportion of false positives (p=0.0226). Cytologic evaluation contributed with wider sampling of tumors and excellent cyto-morphological details. CONCLUSION: Adding cytological evaluation of imprint and smear specimens and cyto-histologic correlation to the traditional gross examination and frozen sections results in better correlation of the intraoperative consultation with the definitive histological diagnosis. In this series cytology was more accurate than frozen sections in some cases. Cytological evaluation of imprints and smears should be considered an important complementary tool in the setting of intraoperative consultation.