Three-year risk of cervical precancer and cancer after the detection of low-risk human papillomavirus genotypes targeted by a commercial test.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the risk of cervical precancer and cancer associated with detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) 6, 11, and 42.

METHODS: We used data from the New Mexico Human Papillomavirus Pap Registry. A stratified sample of 59,644 residual cervical cytology specimens from a population of 379,000 underwent HPV genotyping. We measured the 3-year cumulative incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or more severe (CIN 2+) and grade 3 or more severe (CIN 3+) after detection of single HPV 6, 11, or 42 infections or single or multiple infections of HPV 6, 11, or 42 ("HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations"; n=581).

RESULTS: The overall prevalence of a single infection of HPV 6, 11, or 42 was 0.8% (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.7-0.9%). The 3-year risks of CIN 2+ and CIN 3+ after HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations infections (n=581) were 0.4% (CI 0.1-0.7%) for CIN 2+ and 0.0% for CIN 3+ (nota bene, no CI was calculable because no events occurred), respectively. By comparison, the 3-year risks of CIN 2+ and CIN 3+ after a negative HPV result (n=27,522) were 0.2% (95% CI 0.1-0.2%) and 0.1% (95% CI 0.0-0.1%), respectively.

CONCLUSION: Detection of HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations in the absence of high-risk HPV types does not identify women at increased 3-year risk for cervical precancer. Testing for HPV 6, 11, 42, or combinations of those types should be discontinued because it has no proven benefit to patients.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II.