Negative HPV testing among patients with biopsy-proven cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2/3 or cervical cancer.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the proportion of patients diagnosed with cervical cancer or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or 3 (CIN 2/3) despite testing negative for HPV.

METHODS

A prospective study was conducted at a university hospital in Barcelona, Spain, between March 2003 and January 2015 among women with abnormal cytology results according to the Bethesda classification system. All participants underwent HPV testing, cytology, and colposcopy.

RESULTS

Among 1376 participants, 609 (44.3%) were diagnosed with CIN 2/3. Of these women, 74 (12.2%) tested negative for HPV. Among 479 women with colposcopy-guided biopsy sampling showing CIN 2/3, cone biopsy results that were negative for CIN 2/3 were more frequent among patients with negative HPV testing (13/61 [21.3%]) than among those with positive HPV tests (58/418 [13.9%]; P=0.03). Additionally, among 59 patients diagnosed with cervical cancer, 9 (15.3%) tested negative for HPV.

CONCLUSION

The HPV test was negative for 12% and 15% of patients diagnosed with biopsy-proven CIN 2/3 and cervical cancer, respectively.