ASCCP Releases Updated Consensus Guidelines for Managing Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Tests and Cancer Precursors

Guidelines Developed with 23 National Health Organizations and Nine Years of Cervical Precancer-Management Data on 1.4 million Women

FREDERICK, Md., March 21, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology (ASCCP) today released the Updated Consensus Guidelines for Managing Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Tests and Cancer Precursors.

A group of 47 experts representing 23 professional societies, national and international health organizations, and federal agencies met in Bethesda, MD, September 14 -15, 2012, to update the ASCCP Consensus Guidelines published in 2007. The group's goal was to provide revised evidence-based consensus guidelines for managing women with abnormal cervical cancer screening tests, and diagnosed cancer precursors.  These guidelines follow adoption of updated cervical cancer screening guidelines in 2012 incorporating longer screening intervals and cotesting. In addition to literature review for specific issues, data from almost 1.4 million women in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Medical Care Plan provided evidence on risk of cervical precancer and invasive cancer over an eight year period after abnormal tests and follow up.

The Updated Consensus Guidelines for Managing Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening Tests and Cancer Precursors are coauthored by L. Stewart Massad, MD, Mark H. Einstein, MD, Warner K. Huh, MD, Hormuzd A. Katki, PhD, Walter K. Kinney, MD, Mark Schiffman, MD, Diane Solomon, MD, Nicolas Wentzensen, MD, and Herschel W. Lawson, MD, for the 2012 ASCCP Consensus Guidelines Conference

The educational mission of the ASCCP is to improve clinician competence and performance and patient outcomes through educational activities focused on the study, prevention, diagnosis, and management of lower genital tract disorders. The ASCCP was founded in 1964 and is a 501(c)(3) organization.

The direct weblink to the Guidelines and algorithms is www.ASCCP.org/Consensus2012.

SOURCE The American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology