Belgian consensus guidelines for follow-up of women with cervical cytological abnormalities

In medical care cervical cancer screening is important because it enables the detection of precancer and cancer at an early stage. By adequate treatment after a screening-detected lesion it helps to reduce the mortality related to cervical cancer. Worldwide, many millions of women have smears taken at a more or less regular base and of these, approximately 7% are abnormal, and follow-up is thus required.As this represents an important cost in medical health care and has serious consequences for the affected women, it is important to have uniform and clear guidelines to allow an optimal follow-up and clinical management. A system for the uniform reporting of cervical cytology has been designed by the National Cancer Institute (U.S.A.) and resulted in the Bethesda System 1991. The present paper and the terminology used are based on the Bethesda System revised in 2001. It explains the guidelines, based on the 2001 Bethesda System and the 2004 consensus guidelines for the management of women with cervical cytological abnormalities, as developed by the members of the Board of the Belgian Society of Clinical Cytology, and adapted to the Belgian situation.