[Interest of new biomarkers in cervical precancerous lesion management]

The difficulties of cytological identification of abnormal cells, especially in case of "minor atypias", have led to search for new markers able to make cytological screening more sensitive without decrease of specificity. To date, p16 seems to be the most interesting one. It is currently used in immunohistochemistry on cervical biopsies to distinguish immature metaplasias from high-grade lesions. In cytology, its interest is not yet well defined. According to recent papers, p16 overexpression could improve the efficacy of cytological diagnosis. Further studies are required to make positive recommendations.