Results of an Australian trial using SurePath liquid‐based cervical cytology with Focalpoint computer‐assisted screening technology

Abstract

BD FocalPoint GS™ computer-assisted screening of BD SurePath® liquid-based cervical cytology slides (SP + FP) was compared with screening an accompanying conventional cervical Papanicolaou (Pap) smear (CON) in a split sample trial of 2,198 routine specimens. The rate of unsatisfactory specimens in the SP + FP arm was 0.2% compared with 4.1% in the conventional Pap smear, a significant reduction. There was no statistically significant difference between SP + FP and CON for the detection of histologically confirmed high-grade (HG) lesions in the routine split sample specimens (n = 9). To further test the sensitivity of SP + FP for HG lesions, 38 SurePath slides from confirmed HG cases, without an accompanying CON, were interpolated among the routine smears. In every one of the 47 confirmed HG cases, either HG cells were present in the microscope fields selected by FocalPointGS™ for review by the screening cytologist (46 of 47), or full screening of the slide was indicated by the FocalPointGS™ (1 of 47), confirming the effectiveness of SP + FP technology for primary screening. In a small number of cases, the screening cytologist did not recognize the abnormality even though on review HG cells were present in fields selected by FocalPointGS™. The overall detection rate was 93% for HG squamous lesions; 89% for known HG endocervical glandular lesions; and 91% for known endometrial carcinoma. In conclusion, the SP + FP detected 100% of HG abnormalities in the trial set; significantly reduced the rate of unsatisfactory specimens; and improved the overall screening rate of detection of HG abnormalities particularly of glandular lesions when compared with other screening technologies.