Support for down-staging of pregnancy-associated cervical cancer.

Objective: To evaluate all cases of cervical cancer associated with pregnancy during 16 years in the Western Region of Sweden.

Design: Retrospective, descriptive cohort study.

Setting And Population: All women with cervical cancer, diagnosed during pregnancy or within 6 months after parturition, between 1993 and 2008.

Colposcopically directed cervical biopsy during pregnancy; minor surgical and obstetrical complications and high rates of persistence and regression.

Objective: To evaluate whether colposcopically directed cervical biopsies during pregnancy are associated with surgical/obstetric complications and to examine the natural course (regression, persistence, progression) of dysplasia during pregnancy.

Design: Prospective clinical study.

Setting And Population: University Hospital and 251 pregnant women with atypical cervical cytology in early pregnancy.

Histological diagnosis and evaluation of the Swede score colposcopic system in a large cohort of pregnant women with atypical cervical cytology or cervical malignancy signs.

Objective: We evaluated the distribution of histological diagnoses in pregnant women with atypical cytology or cervical malignancy signs, as well as the usefulness of the Swede score colposcopic scoring system to reduce the need for diagnostic cervical biopsy.

Design: Prospective clinical study.

Setting And Population: The study comprised 261 pregnant women undergoing colposcopic investigation because of atypical cervical cytology, dysplastic biopsy changes, recurrent non-obstetric bleeding or pathological appearance of the cervix.

Type-dependent E6/E7 mRNA expression of single and multiple high-risk human papillomavirus infections in cervical neoplasia.

Background: Coinfection with multiple HPV types is common in cervical lesions, but the biological significance of the individual infections is difficult to establish. Expression of oncogenic E6/E7 HPV mRNA is correlated to risk of malignant progression, commercial assays for genotyping E6/E7 mRNA of all HR-HPV are lacking.

Objectives: To characterize the tendency of 12 HR-HPV to express mRNA, correlated to the severity of the cervical lesion.

Type-specific human papillomavirus E6/E7 mRNA detection by real-time PCR improves identification of cervical neoplasia.

DNA-based human papillomavirus (HPV) assays show high sensitivity but poor specificity in detecting high-grade cervical lesions. Assays detecting mRNA of the oncoproteins E6 and E7 show higher specificity but lack either detection of all high-risk HPV genotypes or the capacity to specify the detected genotypes. Therefore, a real-time PCR assay detecting type-specific E6/E7 mRNA was developed and the clinical performance evaluated.