Conjunctive p16INK4a Testing Significantly Increases Accuracy in Diagnosing High-Grade Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia

The histopathologic interpretation of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) is subject to a high level of interobserver variability and a substantial number of false-positive and false-negative results. We assessed the impact of the conjunctive interpretation of p16(INK4a)-immunostained slides on the accuracy of community-based pathologists in diagnosing high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN; CIN 2 and CIN 3) in biopsy specimens. Twelve pathologists rendered independent diagnoses on a set of 500 H P < .0001). Reproducibility of p16(INK4a) stain interpretation was excellent (kappa = 0.899). Our results show that conjunctive interpretation of p16(INK4a)-stained slides could significantly improve the routine interpretation of cervical histopathology.