Bethesda and other grading terminology should remain in the interim.

2003 MAR 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- According to a study from Germany, "The criteria currently used for grading cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) are arbitrary and subjective with consequent considerable observer variability. None of the currently used criteria make a clear cut case for changing terminology. The combination of CIN 2 and CIN 3 into a high grade lesion is not supported by biologic behavior or HPV typing and leads to overtreatment.

"The various shifts in nomenclature over the last 50 years through the dysplasia, CIN, and Bethesda systems, although intellectually stimulating, have neither improved diagnostic accuracy nor patient management. On the contrary, they often caused confusion and duplication, leading to the common and ironic practice that several terminologies are now being used in an additive fashion. New diagnostic markers are on the horizon as a result of the rapid development in the areas of genomics and proteomics. It seems likely that specific molecular biomarkers will become available, allowing the consistent and accurate discrimination between those intraepithelial lesions that will ultimately become invasive from the vast majority of lesions that will regress or persist," stated V. Schneider and coauthors.

Schneider concluded: "It is preferable at this time to ...