Right-sided ectocervical lesions may be associated with false-negative cytology among women with histologic cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 or 3.
BACKGROUND
The association between the location of an ectocervical lesion and the sensibility of cytologic screening has not been adequately evaluated.


METHODS
We evaluated the proportion of false-negative cytologic interpretations using three independent cytologic interpretations (conventional, PapNet, and ThinPrep) according to lesion location in 111 women with histologic cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 or 3 of a population-based study of cervical neoplasia conducted in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Semiquantitative measures of human papillomavirus viral load were also considered.


RESULTS
Lesions on a women's right ectocervix were associated with more frequent false-negative results than lesions on left ectocervix for each of the cytologic methods or when the most severe interpretation was considered (p = .004). Right-sided lesions had nonsignificantly lower viral loads than left-sided lesions (p = .2).


CONCLUSIONS
Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 2 or 3 located on the right side of the cervix may be poorly sampled with broom samplers in some settings, resulting in false-negative cytologic results.
Jeronimo
Jose
J
Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, The National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD 20892, USA. guibovij@mail.nih.gov
Castle
Philip E
PE
Herrero
Rolando
R
Sherman
Mark E
ME
Bratti
M Concepcion
MC
Hildesheim
Allan
A
Alfaro
Mario
M
Morales
Jorge
J
Hutchinson
Martha L
ML
Burk
Robert D
RD
Lorincz
Attila
A
Wacholder
Sholom
S
Rodríguez
Ana Cecilia
AC
Schiffman
Mark
M