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Obstetrics & Gynecology 2008;111:7-14
© 2008 by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Accuracy of Colposcopy in the Diagnostic Setting Compared With the Screening Setting

Scott B. Cantor, PhD1, Marylou Cárdenas-Turanzas, MD, DrPH1, Dennis D. Cox, PhD2, E. Neely Atkinson, PhD1, Graciela M. Nogueras-Gonzalez, MPH1, J. Robert Beck, MD3, Michele Follen, MD, PhD4 and J. L. Benedet, MD5

From the 1Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; 2Department of Statistics, Rice University, Houston, Texas; 3Division of Population Science, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 4Department of Gynecologic Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas; and 5Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the accuracy of colposcopy to identify cervical precancer in screening and diagnostic settings.

METHODS: As part of a larger clinical trial to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of optical spectroscopy, we recruited 1,850 patients into a diagnostic or a screening group depending on their history of abnormal findings on Papanicolaou tests. Colposcopic examinations were performed and biopsies specimens obtained from abnormal and normal colposcopic sites for all patients. The criterion standard of test accuracy was the histologic report of biopsies. We calculated sensitivities, specificities, likelihood ratios, receiver operating characteristic curves, and areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves.

RESULTS: The prevalence of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) or cancer was 29.0% for the diagnostic group and 2.2% for the screening group. Using a disease threshold of HSIL, colposcopy had a sensitivity of 0.983 and a specificity of 0.451 in the diagnostic group when the test threshold was low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), and a sensitivity of 0.714 and a specificity of 0.813 when the test threshold was HSIL. Using the same HSIL disease threshold, in the screening group, colposcopy had a sensitivity of 0.286 and a specificity of 0.877 when the test threshold was LSIL, and a sensitivity of 0.191 and a specificity of 0.961 when the threshold was HSIL. The colposcopy area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.821 (95% confidence interval 0.79–0.85) in the diagnostic setting compared with 0.587 (95% confidence interval 0.56–0.62) in the screening setting. Changing the disease threshold to LSIL demonstrated similar patterns in the tradeoff of sensitivity and specificity and measure of accuracy.

CONCLUSION: Colposcopy performs well in the diagnostic setting and poorly in the screening setting. Colposcopy should not be used to screen for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II






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