Déjà vu in pap testing: Return of the 5% false‐negative fraction and the zero‐error rate

Rapid rescreening of cervical smears as a quality control method in a high‐risk population

“…It is important to remember that neither rapid review nor any other quality assurance modality will eliminate false-negative cytology completely. 30 It is also of relevance that most women in South Africa and in other developing nations who develop cervical cancer have never had a cervical smear performed.…”

“…The false‐negative proportion for HSIL and ASC‐H (combined) in this study is 5.76%. It has been shown that zero error standard in cytology cannot be achieved 30 . However, cytology laboratories are obliged to implement appropriate quality assurance to ensure that the false‐negative proportion is as small as possible.…”

“…Ideally all reportedly negative and inadequate cervical smears should undergo rapid review but this would only be possible in this cytology laboratory if additional cytoscreeners were employed or clients were to accept longer laboratory turnaround times. It is important to remember that neither rapid review nor any other quality assurance modality will eliminate false‐negative cytology completely 30 . It is also of relevance that most women in South Africa and in other developing nations who develop cervical cancer have never had a cervical smear performed.…”

“…It has been shown that zero error standard in cytology cannot be achieved. 30 However, cytology laboratories are obliged to implement appropriate quality assurance to ensure that the false-negative proportion is as small as possible. The number of cases of HSIL and ASC-H missed by screening is relatively low compared with the number of women screened but is a catastrophe for these women who do develop invasive cervical cancer following negative cervical smear results.…”

Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy as a quantitative diagnostic tool for assignment of premalignancy grading in cervical neoplasia

“…[40][41][42] Various approaches have been undertaken to understand the efficiency of diagnostic methods to identify neoplasia with varying interpretations and results. [43][44][45][46] Currently, the diagnosis is not foolproof due to poor understanding of the detailed mechanism of cervical neoplasia and sampling methods as well as association of HPV with the process of onset of neoplasia. 47,48 Although the selection of the sample for diagnosis has had a scientific explanation, 49 often the samples used were from PAP smears or similar processes.…”