Posttreatment Surveillance of Precancerous Cervical Lesions: When and How?

Clinical Takeaway

: Follow-up testing is recommended at 6, 18, and 30 months — and then every 3 years for more than 2 decades.

Context

For patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grades 2 or 3 (CIN 2/3), excisional and ablative treatments have failure rates of 5%–10%. Approximately 0.5% of patients develop invasive cervical cancer within 2.5 years of treatment, yet only half of patients complete recommended follow-up. A new article offers primary care clinicians a brief overview of 2019 guidelines from the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) on posttreatment surveillance and situates these recommendations in the modern context of prevalence data and screening patterns.

Key Points

Posttreatment testing is recommended at 6, 18, and 30 months for all patients.
Clinician-collected human papillomavirus (HPV)–based testing (alone or with c…

Reviewing Author

Marie Claire O’Dwyer, M.B. B.Ch. B.A.O., M.P.H.

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose