CYTOLOGICAL PATTERNS OF CERVICAL PAP SMEARS AND IT'S UTILITY IN EARLY DETECTION OF CERVICAL CANCER

INTRODUCTION: Carcinoma cervix is the 2nd most common cancer in females in the world, while it is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries like India. It is estimated that in India 1,22,844 new cases occurs each year due to lack of proper screening facilities or lack of awareness. Cervical cytology by PAP is an effective means of screening as carcinoma cervix is a preventable disease due to long pre invasive stage, early detection and treatment. Objective of our study is to study the frequency of various inflammatory and epithelial abnormalities in a female, to study premalignant and malignant lesions in relation to age, parity, presenting complaint, per speculum examination and histological correlation whenever possible. This is a retro METHODOLOGY: spective study of 1099 cervical smears, screened by conventional PAP smear method and reported based on Bethesda system 2014, at our institute over a period of 10months (January- October,2021). In this study, age of women ranged from 18 to 87 years, prominent RESULTS: complaints among the participants was abdominal pain. Out of 1099smears, (8.22%) was found to be unsatisfactory, NILM (90.71%), ASCUS(0.45%), LSIL(0.10%), HSIL(0.20%), Squamous Cell Carcinoma(0.10%) and Aadenocarcinoma (0.20%).56 PAP smears were followed by histological examination. CONCLUSION: Cervical cytology is simple, noninvasive, cost effective and sensitive tool for early detection of premalignant and malignant lesions of cervix and helps the clinician in effective management of these cases. It should be established as a routine screening procedure to reduce the treatment burden, morbidity and mortality