Monitoring of patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia after excisional treatment

Abstract

Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) refers to precancerous changes in the cervix. After surgical treatment, a certain proportion of patients remain at risk of disease reccurence. Therefore, monitoring of patients after CIN surgery is an important and necessary part of their management tactics. Objective. Review of world literature on modern approaches to patients monitoring after using excisional methods of CIN treatment. Materials and methods. The information material includes data from scientific articles on the subject available in Pubmed and published over the past 20 years. Results. The analysis of data contained in modern literature on the frequency and risk factors for the development of reccurent CIN after excisional methods of treatment, diagnostic methods, the timing of follow-up examinations during post-operative monitoring, the main approaches to monitoring in different countries and the effectiveness of the proposed strategies for postoperative follow-up of patients after treatment was conducted. It was established that the approaches to the observation of this category of patients differ in various countries. Almost everywhere, the priority tool for monitoring of patients with CIN after treatment is a combined test, which involves a joint use of cytology and human papillomavirus tests. The main difference between countries is the timing of the first post-treatment follow-up visit. In some countries a follow-up visit is recommended within 24 months, while in others it is suggested to return to routine screening if the primary combined test is negative. Conclusion. Despite existing disagreements, the proposed post-operative monitoring strategies for CIN patients provide a fairly high percentage of “healing” and return to routine screening. Key words: human papillomavirus, monitoring, cervical cancer, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, excisional treatment