Liquid-based cytology just as sensitive as conventional cytology in cervical cancer screening

Despite falling incidence, cervical cancer remains the tenth leading cause of cancer death. However, cervical screening programmes have been shown to reduce the incidence of this type of cancer.

Liquid based cytology (LBC) is a new way of preparing cervical samples for examination in the laboratory, which involves scraping the sample into a vial of liquid, compared with conventional cytology were the sample is scraped onto a miscroscope slide. In both instances, the prepared sample is examined under a microscope with the aim of detecting any malignant cells. Previous studies comparing the accuracy of both of these techniques have produced conflicting results.
In this study of approximately 45, 0000 women in Italy, the authors reported no significant difference in diagnostic sensitivity between LBC and conventional cytology.

The authors conclude that although there is no difference is sensitivity between the two techniques, the main advantage of LBC is that it reduces the number of unsatisfactory slides that are usually difficult to interpret.

Source: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf/bmj.39196.740995.BEv1