Detecting premalignant cervical lesions. Contribution of screening colposcopy to cytology.

The combination of parallel cytology and screening colposcopy was found to increase the detection of premalignant cervical lesions from 8.2% in a group of patients (based on cytology alone) to 15.3% in that group (based on the combination). The combination of the two methods used in parallel increased the sensitivity, negative predictive value and efficiency of cervical cancer screening over cytology alone while having only a small negative impact on the positive predictive value of a positive test. The addition of screening colposcopy to cytology produces a significant improvement over current uniphasic screening protocols.