Diagnostic tests for the detection of human papillomavirus-associated cervical lesions

Current diagnostic approaches for primary cervical cancer screening, work-up of equivocal or positive screening results or follow- up after treatment of precancerous lesions primarily rely on the morphologic interpretation of squamous epithelial cells (Pap cytology), in some setting accompanied by the detection of human papillomavirus DNA and have largely contributed to remarkable reduction of disease incidence in countries with implemented screening programs. However, these approaches are limited by a poor sensitivity and reproducibility of Pap cytology and low specificity for high grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of HPV DNA detection assays. Early detection might be improved by complementing or even replacing these tests by markers which are more directly related to molecular events triggering HPV-induced carcinogenesis and thereby might deliver more accurate diagnostic performance. The delineation of molecular changes which occur during different stages of HPV infections and the identification of changes which induce neoplastic alterations allow for the detection of markers that specifically highlight the transforming stage of the infection where viral oncogenes are overexpressed and therefore allow for a more specific diagnosis of lesions that require treatment. The evaluation of such markers in clinical studies revealed that some indeed show an improved diagnostic performance compared to Pap cytology or HPV DNA tests only.