Original article

Application of GYPC gene methylation detection in cervical cancer screening for HR-HPV-positive women

  • LUO Haijun ,
  • LIAN Yixiang ,
  • WANG Zhigan ,
  • JIANG Shali
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  • Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Changsha Central Hospital, Hengyang Medical School, University of South China, Changsha 410000, China

Received date: 2024-06-15

  Accepted date: 2024-10-08

  Online published: 2025-02-25

Abstract

Objective To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of GYPC (Glypican) gene methylation (GYPCm) in cervical exfoliated cells for detecting cervical cancer and precancerous lesions among women infected with high-risk human pa-pillomavirus (HR-HPV). Methods This study enrolled a total of 187 HR-HPV-positive women who underwent histopathological examination of colposcopy-guided biopsy at the hospital from October 2022 to July 2023, with a median age of 40.0 years (range: 17-75 years). Cervical exfoliated cells were collected before colposcopy for cytological testing, and the remai-ning specimens were tested for GYPCm status. Using the results of histopathological examination of colposcopy-guided biopsy as the gold standard, this study analyzed the diagnostic efficacy of GYPCm for detecting cervical cancer and precancerous lesions and compared it with cytological test results. Results The ΔCp value of GYPCm decreased significantly with increa-sing severity of cervical lesions. At a cutoff value of 15.975, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curves for detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or higher (CIN2+) and grade 3 or higher (CIN3+) were 0.800 (95% CI: 0.733-0.867) and 0.856 (95% CI: 0.784-0.928), respectively. To ensure that the sensitivity of GYPCm detection for CIN3+ was not inferior to cytological testing, the optimal cutoff value was determined to be ΔCp = 15.975. The positive rate of GYPCm detection in patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was 100%. For CIN3+, the diagnostic sensitivity of GYPCm detection was comparable to that of cytological testing (86.7% vs. 84.4%, P=0.782), with no statistically significant difference. However, GYPCm detection demonstrated significantly higher specificity (65.5% vs. 29.6%, P<0.001) and positive predictive value (44.3% vs. 27.5%, P<0.001) compared with cytological testing. For CIN2+, the specificity and positive predictive value of GYPCm were significantly higher than those of cytological testing (both P<0.001). Conclusions GYPCm detection can serve as an effective triage tool for HR-HPV-positive women in cervical cancer scree-ning, offering better diagnostic efficacy compared with cytological testing.

Cite this article

LUO Haijun , LIAN Yixiang , WANG Zhigan , JIANG Shali . Application of GYPC gene methylation detection in cervical cancer screening for HR-HPV-positive women[J]. Journal of Diagnostics Concepts & Practice, 2025 , 24(01) : 65 -71 . DOI: 10.16150/j.1671-2870.2025.01.010

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