[Clinical usefulness of diagnostic methods for human papilloma virus dependent lesions]

Persistent infection of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is confirmed necessary factor for development of cervical cancer and anogenital neoplasia. DNA HPV is detected in 96% of cervical cancer, 40% of vulvar and vaginal cancer, 90% of anal cancer and 26% of oral cavity cancer cases in general population. The most common high-risk HPV types observed in anogenital intraepithelial neoplasia or anogenital cancer are HPV 16, 18 and 45. Numerous diagnostic methods of detection of HPV infection and lesions causes by persistent HPV infection are widely used. Epidemiological data reveals correlation of incidence and mortality reduction due to cervical cancer and consequent prosecution and improvement of screening programmes based on morphological assessment of exfoliative smears. In last decade some limitations of conventional smear method were pointed out and a new diagnostic techniques were introduced: liquid-based cytology and HPV DNA testing. Combination of cytological examination and HPV DNA testing seems to be optimal solution to be introduced in large population because of combining high sensitivity of molecular test with high specificity of cytological smear.