ZNF671 methylation test in cervical scrapings for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 and cervical cancer detection
Peng Zhu, Jing Xiong, Ding Yuan, Xiang Li, Lili Luo, Ju Huang, Binbin Wang, Quanfang Nie, Shuli Wang, Liying Dang, Yan Chen, Shu Li, Yuhang An, Yang Li, Rong Liu, Yanping He, Xiong Li, Puxiang Chen, Hong‐Hao Zhou, Qing Li
Abstract
Effective triage of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV)+ women is warranted to avoid unnecessary referral and overtreatment. Molecular triage tests have recently begun to impact cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 (CIN3) or cervical cancer (CC), termed CIN3+, detection. We find that zinc finger protein 671 methylation (ZNF671 m ) test has superior performance for CIN3+ detection in all single molecular triage tests, including HPV16/18 genotyping, paired box gene 1 methylation (PAX1 m ), and ZNF671 m , in the training set. Using ZNF671 m test instead of Thinprep cytologic test (TCT) as a single triage strategy or as a combined triage strategy with HPV16/18 genotyping has achieved comparable sensitivity but higher specificity for CIN3+ detection among 391 hrHPV+ women in the validation set. Little attention has been paid to the women with hrHPV− status but detected CIN3+. We find that the CIN3+ risk after a negative result could be reduced further by triage using ZNF671 m in hrHPV− patients.