[Global guidelines for cervical cancer screening: a systematic review]

Abstract

Objective: To systematically summarize and evaluate the current cervical cancer screening guidelines worldwide. Methods: "Cervical cancer/cervical intraepithelial neoplasia", "screening", and "guidelines/recommendations" were searched as keywords in PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data for cervical cancer screening guidelines. The language was limited to Chinese and English. A total of 29 guidelines were included before September 1, 2020. The basic information and recommendations of the guidelines issued were summarized. Results: Among the 29 cervical cancer screening guidelines, most guidelines targeted on the population aged 25-65 years. Cytology and human papillomavirus (HPV) testing are two commonly used methods for the cervical cancer screening, and HPV testing is increasingly recommended as the primary screening methods. Most guidelines recommended five years interval for the HPV testing-based screening or co-testing (HPV testing and cytology) based screening and three years for the cytology-based. For managing population with abnormal cervical cancer screening, triage or screening repeatedly to identify high-risk populations were more recommended. Direct colposcopy or treatment were allowed for women with higher risk of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) during the screening procedure. Several guidelines involving HPV vaccination population recommended them the same strategy as the general population without vaccination. Conclusion: Currently, most of the cervical cancer screening guidelines applied to the population with the average risk of the CINs and were issued by the developed countries. Primary methods for the cervical cancer screening have gradually changed from the cytology to the HPV testing. There is a lack of recommendations targeting special population on cervical cancer screening in the current guidelines.