Colposcopy as a method of management strategy in CIN and microinvasive cancer

During nearly 40 years of using colposcopy, an original management strategy in CIN and early cervical cancer was developed and confirmed in 2 study groups of cervical lesions containing respectively 1228 and 6001 cases. This approach is based on colposcopy as the main method in early detection of CIN and cancer, with supplementary cytology in necessary cases, and on a coloposcopic-histological staging of these lesions for treatment qualification. Colposcopy alone is a fairly adequate method for diagnosis of 60% of examined cases, and coloscopy with directed biopsy in the next 20% of colposcopically highly suspect findings. Only in the remaining 20% of colposcopically less suspect findings and in the cases of "unsatisfactory colposcopy", supplementary was cytology required. In this study colposcopy findings connected with histological evaluation of the specimens provided a basic way for determining the advancement of processes and the selection method for the appropriate type and extent of treatment. CIN 1 and 2 and small focuses of CIN 3 including CIS entirely visible on the ectocervix, in childless young women were treated by cryosurgery. In all remaining cases of CIN 3, the basic therapeutic method was cold-knife conization. In exceptional cases simple hysterectomy can be a more adequate treatment. Depending on our colposcopic-histological staging, in Stage IA1--conization, whereas in Stage IA2--a moderately extended hysterectomy should be optionally performed. The management strategy introduced is an economical, fully effective and quick way of detection and selection of the method for the treatment of CIN and early cervical cancer.