Study of micronuclei in cervical pap smear

Abstract

Carcinoma of the cervix is a common cause of mortality in women regardless of effective screening methods. Screening for (MN) in cells has been one among the tests used in cancer screening. Several containing cells rises in carcinogen- exposed tissues much earlier than the symptoms. Here in this study usefulness of (MN) in screening cervical lesions was evaluated. We studied comparison of MN score among different cervical lesions and the significance of the difference in the score. We evaluated 406 cervical smears, categorized them using the “Bethesda 2014 system". Mean MN scores among the different cervical lesion categories were compared, and the differences were studied statistically for its significance. Results showed a gradual increase in mean MN score with increasing severity of the cervical lesion and the differences in these scores were statistically significant (P < 0.05) among all the categories, with significantly higher mean MN scores in high grade squamous wounds and invasive carcinomas (IC)than others. We concluded that the MN test could serve as an additional and practical screening test in conjunction with the conventional cervical Pap smear for cervical cancer screening.