Distribution of cervical lesions in high-risk HPV (hr-HPV) positive women with ASC-US: a retrospective single-center study in China

BackgroundTo investigate distributions of cervical lesions and factors associated with the severity of the cervical lesions in high-risk HPV (hr-HPV) positive women with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) cytology.MethodsClinical information of 250,000 women who underwent HPV and cytological test was collected from January 2012 to January 2019. The association between the severity of the cervical lesions and hr-HPV genotypes, hr-HPV viral load, and ages, were analyzed in hr-HPV-positive/ASC-US women.Results3459 hr-HPV-positive/ASC-US women were enrolled in this study. Overall, 43.51% of women with ASC-US had normal histological results, 34.35% had high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL), and 1.30% had cervical cancer. The rate of HSIL or worse (HSIL+) in women with single HPV16 infection (63.09%) was the highest, followed by HPV33 (57.50%), HPV51 (36.11%), HPV58 (36.11%), HPV52 (28.28%), HPV18 (26.37%), HPV66 (19.35%), HPV39 (18.92%), HPV53 (15.00%), and HPV56 (8.51%). Detection rate of HSIL+ in low, intermediate and high viral-load groups were 15.87% (n=30), 34.91% (n=74) and 40.68% (n=214) (Cochran-Armitage Trend test chi (2)=35.03, p<0.0001). Compared with the 51-60-year-old group (21.65%), the women in<less than or equal to>30 (40.52%), 31-40 (39.67%), and 41-50 (34.22%) year-old groups had significantly higher risk of HSIL+. The women in <= 51-60 (2.68%) and>60 (3.41%) year-old groups were at increased risk for cervical cancer, compared with the <= 30-year-old group (0.61%).ConclusionsASC-US women with HPV 16/18/33/51/52/58 single infection and multiple infections, as well as high HPV viral loads, have high risk of HSIL+.