The new diagnoses found that in two-thirds of the women, there were no abnormal cervical squamous cells, or, more precisely, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS)/favor low-grade dysplasia. The presence of dysplasia abnormal cells indicates that a woman is infected with HPV, said Gerard Nuovo, the study's lead author and a professor of pathology at Ohio State University.
"That's a lot of women who were told that they had a venereal disease but really didn't," he said. "Not only that, but HPV is also a precursor of cervical cancer. We don't see cases of cervical cancer without the virus present."
The study appears in a recent issue of the journal Cancer Cytopathology.
When diagnosing a Pap culture,
pathologists look for irregularities
in cervical squamous cells.
Squamous cells line the surface of
an organ
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Contact: Gerard Nuovo
Nuovo.1@osu.edu
614-293-7853
Ohio State University
7-Jul-2003