title: High long-term cure rate justifies routine treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade I.
abstract: The long-term clearance of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) Grade 1 after one treatment was studied retrospectively in 105 patients. Treatment was by CO2 laser vaporization (74 patients), cone biopsy (8), loop electroexcision (LEEP) (7), electrodiathermy (1) and hysterectomy (2); 79 of the 92 treated patients (85.9%) had normal cervical cytology and colposcopy on a mean follow-up period of 36.7 months (95% confidence interval between 33.1-40.4 months). Life table analysis showed that the probability of the cervix remaining disease free was 81% at 72 months of follow-up. Of the 13 patients with a cervical abnormality after the initial treatment, 4 had persistent CIN 1, 3 persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, 2 recurrent CIN 1 and 4 had recurrent HPV infection. In contrast, of the 13 untreated patients with CIN 1, 7 (53.8%) continued to demonstrate an abnormality on the cervix after a mean follow-up period of 27.5 months (95% confidence interval between 18.8 and 36.3 months). No significant perioperative morbidity was recorded in the treated patients. The results of this study suggest that CIN 1 can be effectively eradicated in more than 80% of women with 1 treatment alone. The treatment should be considered for all these patients to spare them the psychological and emotional trauma of having to face repeated abnormal cervical cytology on follow up.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Singapore General Hospital.
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Tay
authors.forename: T T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: Yong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D027383:Papillomaviridae; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014412:Tumor Virus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*