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Tissue changes may explain false-negative Pap smears.(Brief Article)
2002 AUG 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Some women may be getting false-negative results on their routine Pap tests because aberrant tissue changes can keep abnormal cells from being picked up during the exam, according to a new study.
Writing in the June 2002 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, physicians at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California (USC) and colleagues in California and Taiwan are the first to suggest this explanation for the frequent occurrence of false-negative Pap smears.
Nationwide, physicians perform about 55 million Pap tests every year to look for cervical cells that are becoming abnormal, a precursor to cancer. Unfortunately, as many as 4 in 10 test results come back negative even when a biopsy shows abnormal lesions, and researchers have not been able to conclusively explain the inconsistencies.
A substance called E-cadherin may lie at the heart of the problem, said the study's lead author, Juan C. Felix, MD, professor of clinical pathology and obstetrics and gynecology at the Keck School of Medicine.
E-cadherin is a molecule that helps cells in the cervical tissue stick together, Felix explained. Normally, E-cadherin can be found in cervical tissue, except on the cervix's surface (the superficial epithelial layers). With no E-cadherin there, older cells can detach and slough away from the surface of the cervix, much like dead cells are regularly exfoliated from the surface of the skin.
However, the researchers found that in some cervical lesions, E-cadherin also was abnormally present in cells on the cervix's surface, keeping the abnormal epithelial cells anchored to the cells beneath them. Researchers theorized that this bond keeps these telltale aberrant cells from being collected during testing.
"I am convinced that the findings of this study are extremely important in understanding the biology of the false-negative Pap smear," Felix said. "Never before have we seen such clear evidence that barriers to exfoliation are linked to false-negative Pap smears." ...
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Source: HighBeam Research, Tissue changes may explain false-negative Pap smears.(Brief Article)