Women with HPV-Driven Anal and Genital Disease: Investigating the Patient Cohort in England

Background/Objectives: Women carry two-thirds of the global anal cancer burden. Persistent genital (vulval, vaginal and cervical) high-risk Human Papillomavirus (hrHPV) infection and the resultant genital high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSILs) and genital cancers are now acknowledged as independent risk factor for anal dysplasia in women. Patients with both genital and anal hrHPV-related diseases, however, are poorly researched. Methods: National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS) data was requested via the NHS Digital data access request service (DARS). Women in England over the age of 25 years diagnosed with anal HSIL/cancer between 2001 and 2020 who also had a vulval and/or vaginal and/or cervical cancer HSIL/cancer diagnosis within the 20-year period before or 1-year period after their anal cancer/HSIL were studied. The burden of genital disease in women with anal cancer, their sociodemographic risk factors and timelines between acquisition of genital and anal pathology were assessed. Results: A total of 8% (n = 1297/16,301) of all women with anal HSIL/cancer also had metachronous or synchronous genital HSIL/cancer diagnoses. Women who were first diagnosed with cervical HSIL had a lower burden of recurrent anogenital lesions over time (p = 0.04) but a significantly higher risk of presenting with late-stage anal cancer than women first presenting with vulval pathology (p = 0.02). Women who had disease in more than one anatomical site developed disease features 10–20 years earlier compared to other published datasets on women with single site disease. Conclusions: These findings support the current IANS screening recommendation guidelines and suggest that the current anal cancer risk for women with cervical dysplasia may be underestimated.