A feasibility study of DNA ploidy analysis, HPV, and TCT for screening of cervical cancer: A retrospective study

The present study aimed to evaluate the application of DNA ploidy analysis, human papillomavirus (HPV-DNA) test, and thin-prep cytologic test (TCT) for mass screening of cervical cancer (CC). A total of 13,830 patients who underwent both TCT and HPV-DNA tests from June 2021 to June 2022 were selected as study participants (10,107 patients from Shandong Provincial Hospital, 2447 patients from First People's Hospital of Tancheng County, and 1276 patients from Liaocheng People's Hospital). We also conducted a DNA ploidy analysis and compared the results. A biopsy was performed by colposcopy according to the screening results, and the diagnosis based on the results of the biopsy was regarded as "the golden standard." The χ2 test was used for group comparison, the Kruskal-Wallis test was used for ordinal data, and the Kappa test was used for consistency analysis. Based on the retrospective analysis of the biopsy results, DNA ploidy analysis, and TCT combined with HPV-DNA test, the accuracy of predicting precancerous cervical lesion was 97.95%, the positive predictive value was 66.72%, and the negative predictive value was 97.30%. The comprehensive detection showed a similar outcome as that for histopathological examination. The study demonstrates that DNA ploidy analysis, when used in conjunction with the HPV-DNA test and TCT, significantly enhances the accuracy of CC screening. DNA ploidy analysis provides a reliable basis for the early detection and accurate prediction of precancerous cervical lesions, supporting its integration into routine CC screening protocols.