Cervical cancer screening using pap smear and visual inspection with acetic acid in a tertiary care hospital in South India

The clinical investigation will be designed as observational study, because it is being conducted primarily to understand the implementation of VIA based screening in outpatient setting. Women who satisfy the inclusion criteria and are willing to sign the consent form will be enrolled for the study. PI will recruit the female subjects and will examine them as per routine protocol for cervical cancer screening in the hospital. In addition, they will perform visual inspection with acetic acid. Subject’s brief history and examination findings will be recorded in CRF. Pap smear results for each case will be collected when ready and results entered in the CRF.  Cervical biopsy will be done for screening positive patients. At the end of the study the results will be compiled for all the cases and analysis will be done.

Combining VIA and Pap tests will reduce the number of visits to the hospital, as biopsy can be immediately taken in VIA positive case. In our study we used a ready-to use “kit†instead of preparing 5% acetic acid solution, and procuring each item like glove, speculum etc. separately. This was helpful as we always had the necessary items instead of waiting for availability of 5% acetic acid solution.