Cervical Cancer Screening in Adolescents: Sometimes Less Is More

Elucidation of the link between cervical cancer and infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus (HPV) has led to increased use of HPV DNA testing in the management of women with abnormal Pap smears. However, 80% of female adolescents become HPV DNA positive soon after their first sexual encounters, with the vast majority of these infections clearing spontaneously within 2 years. Hence, HPV DNA testing in adolescents with abnormal cervical cytology would lead to the referral of many adolescents for colposcopy even though they are at low risk for cervical cancer.

In 2006, the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) convened a consensus conference to update its evidence-based guidelines for managing women with abnormal cervical cancer screening tests. Based on current data on the ubiquity and natural history of HPV infection in teenagers and results from the National Cancer Institute–sponsored Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance (ASC-US) Low-Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion (LSIL) Triage Study (ALTS), the consensus conference recommended that HPV DNA testing should not be used to manage adolescents with abnormal Pap smears.

New recommendations for adolescents (age, ≤20) are as follows:

• Adolescents with ASC-US should undergo repeat Pap smears every 12 months. At 12 months, only adolescents with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) or greater should be referred for colposcopy. At 24 months, only those with ASC-US or greater should be referred for colposcopy.

• Adolescents with LSIL should undergo repeat Pap smears every 12 months. At 12 months, only those with HSIL need to be referred for colposcopy. At 24 months, only those with ASC-US or greater should be referred.

• In adolescents with either ASC-US or LSIL, “HPV DNA testing is unacceptable . . . and if inadvertently performed, should not influence management.”