Human papillomavirus reporting: impact on Bethesda cytology reports

In 2001, the Bethesda Committee revised the terminology for reporting Papanicolaou tests. One of the 2001 Bethesda forum groups addressed the use of ancillary tests, and the most commonly used ancillary test is for human papillomavirus (HPV). The Bethesda Ancillary Testing Forum presented terminology related to HPV testing. The Ancillary Testing Forum recommended that the specific HPV test method be presented and the results reported as positive or negative for HPV of a certain type or class. The Papanicolaou test and the HPV test should be reported together or should refer to each other if possible. A number of reporting schema currently are used to report HPV results; these schema include probabilistic reporting, integrated reporting, reporting as a result, and reporting with clinical management recommendations. Few data currently are available to support an optimal reporting method.