What is the relationship between cervical cancer, HPV, and TCT?

What is cervical cancer?

Cervical cancer is the most common malignant tumor in the female reproductive system. The high incidence age is 50 to 55 years old. However, in recent years, the incidence of cervical cancer in young women has been increasing year by year.

What are the symptoms of cervical cancer?

When cells in the cervix first appear abnormal, there are usually no warning signs. As the tumor develops, the following symptoms may appear:

1. Unusual vaginal discharge

2. Vaginal bleeding during non-menstrual cycle

3. Postmenopausal bleeding

4. Bleeding or pain during sex

What is the relationship between cervical cancer and HPV?

HPV virus, Chinese name is human papilloma virus, is a general term for a certain type of virus. 40 types of HPV can infect the genital area, and some types are high-risk factors for cervical cancer.

According to the level of risk, the HPV subtypes that may cause cervical lesions and cervical cancer are called high-risk types, the most common are HPV16 and 18, and HPVs with low cancer risk are called low-risk types.

In most cases, genital infection with HPV virus can heal itself, and there is no danger, so there is no need to worry about a high-risk HPV positive.

If you are infected with certain HPVs and become chronic, it can lead to changes in the cells of the cervix, which can lead to cancer. Worldwide, 90% of cervical cancers are caused by HPV, so calling it the culprit is no exaggeration.

How does HPV cause cervical cancer?

If a high-risk subtype of the HPV strain lurks in the body, it has the potential to cause abnormal cells in the cervix. These precancerous lesions do not necessarily mean cancer, but over time it is possible for abnormal cells to set the stage for becoming cancerous. Once the tumor appears, it can spread in and around the cervix.

What is TCT?

TCT examination is the abbreviation of liquid-based thin-layer cell detection. The liquid-based thin-layer cell detection system is used to detect cervical cells and carry out cytological classification diagnosis. It is currently the most advanced cervical cancer examination technology in the world. Compared with Pap smear, cervical smear significantly improves the satisfaction of the specimen and the detection rate of abnormal cervical cells. The results of the TCT report are mainly divided into the following seven categories:

1. No intraepithelial lesion cells or malignant cells (NILM): Indicates that the cervical cells are normal and no special treatment is required.

2. Atypical squamous cells of indeterminate significance (ASC-US): Indicates that cervical cells may have lesions, and if combined with high-risk HPV infection, colposcopy cervical biopsy is required to confirm the diagnosis. If there is no high-risk HPV infection, 3- Review TCT after 6 months.

3. Atypical squamous cells do not rule out high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (ASC-H): It means that cervical cells have precancerous lesions or cancers, but the abnormal cells are not accurate enough to diagnose, and cervical biopsy under colposcopy is needed to confirm the diagnosis.

4. Low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL): Indicates that cervical cells may have low-grade precancerous lesions, which require further diagnosis by colposcopy cervical biopsy.

5. High-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL): Indicates that the cervical cells have suspected high-grade precancerous lesions, and a colposcopy cervical biopsy is required to confirm the diagnosis.

6. Atypical glandular cells (AGC): Indicates that some lesions have occurred in cervical canal cells, and colposcopy and cervical canal biopsy are required to confirm the diagnosis.

7. Squamous cell carcinoma: It means that the cervical cells have become cancerous. If the tissue type can be identified, it will be reported as keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma, non-keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma, etc.

What is the relationship between HPV and TCT?

To briefly summarize the relationship between these two tests, HPV is to detect whether there is a high-risk viral infection that may lead to cervical lesions and cervical cancer, and TCT is to detect whether abnormal changes have occurred in cervical cells under the action of pathogenic factors, that is to say HPV is the cause, TCT is the result. Therefore, only combining these two results can help doctors make an accurate diagnosis.

Since persistent infection of high-risk HPV is a necessary condition for the occurrence of cervical cancer, in order to detect cervical precancerous lesions and cervical cancer as soon as possible, it is recommended that women who have sex for more than 3 years and women over 30 years old should have high-risk HPV once a year. And TCT inspection, if the inspection results are normal for two consecutive years, the inspection can be carried out every 2-3 years. Both HPV and TCT examinations collect exfoliated cells on the surface of the cervix, so the patient does not feel any pain when the specimen is taken, so there is no need to be too nervous and anxious about the examination.

Cervical cancer is the only cancer with a clear etiology (high-risk HPV), the only cancer that can be prevented and treated at an early stage, and the only cancer that has the hope of being completely eradicated. Therefore, as long as scientific and reasonable screening and follow-up are carried out regularly, female friends can stay away from this most common gynecological malignancy.

The Human Papillomavirus Real Time PCR Kit is an in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) kit, based on real-time PCR technology, for the detection of 18 HPV types (16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, 73, 53, 82, and 26) in cervical exfoliated cells in one reaction well. The kit identifies HPV16, HPV18, other HPV types and internal control (β-globin) using fluorescence channels: FAM, VIC, ROX and CY5. This kit contains primers and probes that are designed to target the L1, L2, and E1 genes of 18 HPV types. The amplicon length of each HPV type does not exceed 200 bp. A PCR fluorescence detection system is used to record the change in fluorescence emitted by the fluorescent probe at each PCR cycle during PCR amplification, which directly reflects the change in the PCR amplification yield.