Table 1.
Descriptive characteristics of the 347 treated women at the pre-treatment final screening visit and the post-treatment visit.
| Pre-treatment screening visit |
Post-treatment visit |
|
|---|---|---|
| Median age (IQR), years | 34 (27-42) | 40 (34-48) |
| Reason for colposcopy referral | ||
| HSIL cytology | 263/347 (75.8%) | 53/347 (15.3%) |
| CIN2+ cervigram | 54/347 (15.6%) | 1/347 (0.3%) |
| Visual examination suggested cancer | 7/347 (2.0%) | 1/347 (0.3%) |
| Other | 23/347 (6.6%) | 0/347 (0%) |
| Not referred post-treatment | N/A | 292/347 (84.2%) |
| Histologic disease | ||
| CIN3+ | 88/347 (25.4%) | 6/347 (1.7%) |
| CIN2 | 74/347 (21.3%) | 0/347 (0%) |
| <CIN2 | 185/347 (53.3%) | 6/347 (1.7%) |
| No tissue taken post-treatment | N/A | 335/347 (96.5%) |
| HPV status1 | ||
| HPV16 | 93/347 (26.8%) | 10/347 (2.9%) |
| HPV18 | 19/347 (5.5%) | 5/347 (1.4%) |
| Other carcinogenic HPV | 128/347 (36.9%) | 18/347 (5.2%) |
| Non-carcinogenic HPV | 34/347 (9.8%) | 53/347 (15.3%) |
| HPV negative | 71/347 (20.5%) | 244/347 (70.3%) |
| Missing HPV results | 2/347 (0.6%) | 17/347 (4.9%) |
| Persistent infection2 | ||
| HPV16 | N/A | 8/328 (2.4%) |
| HPV18 | 2/328 (0.6%) | |
| Other Carcinogenic HPV | 8/328 (2.4%) | |
| New Infection.3 | ||
| HPV16 | N/A | 2/238 (0.8%) |
| HPV18 | 3/306 (1.0%) | |
| Other Carcinogenic HPV | 11/328 (3.4%) | |
IQR Interquartile range
For multiple infections, HPV PCR results were used to categorize women hierarchically into one of five groups: (a) positive for HPV16; (b) else positive for HPV18; (c) else positive for other carcinogenic HPVs; (d) else noncarcinogenic HPV positive; or (e) else HPV negative. This approach HPV16 infection was the most disease-relevant infection, followed by HPV18, etc.
Persistent infections were defined as type-specific HPV infections present during any of the main cohort visits and the follow-up visit; 328 women had type specific HPV results at both time points and therefore served as the denominators for the respective analyses.
Women were at risk for developing a new infection if the HPV type in question was not present at any visit prior to follow-up and was subsequently present at the follow-up visit. Therefore, only women who were negative for each specific HPV type were considered at risk for a new infection: denominators for women, HPV16, n=238, HPV18, n=306, and other carcinogenic types, n=328.