Prognostic Marker for HR HPV Associated Early Squamous Lesions: HPV L1 Capsid Protein Detection by Immunochemistry

Objective: The effectivness of screening programs has considerably reduced the incidence of invasive cervical cancer. Intraepithelial precursor lesions are frequently detected and, as a result, their treatment-related costs soared. Until today no morphological criteria or molecular markers exist to identify those precursor lesions that will not regress but progress to cancer, hence selecting for those women who benefit from costly surgical procedures. In a previous retrospective study we showed that HPV high risk associated mild and moderate dysplastic lesions without immunochemical detectable HPV L1 capsid prot…